Halfway is just right

As I looked at the beautiful half moon on Friday night, halfway on its way to fullness, I thought about the question "Is your glass half-empty or half-full?" I should have run inside and asked my dear friend who graciously hosted me for the weekend ... we're alike in many ways so I think I know her answer (and thank you Mary Ellen for your kind hospitality and your love of the moon). Anyway, back to my musing; usually the question is asked so we can pin down the person by their answer. Half-empty? You're a pessimist. Half-full? You're an optimist. I'm certainly the half-full-optimist sort. But then I thought I really strive to be the sort whose answer is simply it's halfway. I'm working on that.

Which led me to one of my favorite childhood memories (one I know I certainly passed along to at least some of my own children) and that's A.A. Milne's excellent poem "Halfway Down." Christopher Robin sits on his favorite stair which is neither at the bottom nor the top. It's his favorite stair, so he says, "this is the stair where I always stop." He allows his mind to wander and realizes that the stair ..."isn't really anywhere! It's somewhere else instead!" Ah, the Tao of Pooh.

Which reminded me of a story I once read in Humans of New York. I haven't been able to track it down now but the gist of it was this: a woman told the story of how she manages her whole life -- she doesn't give great emphasis to all the wonderful, happy, excellent, joyful moments of her life any more than she gives great emphasis to the awful, heartbreaking, sad, terrible moments of her life. She always knows that all these moments will come and they will go, so she tried and still tries to live somewhere close to the middle with compassion, gratitude and understanding. So, it's the same thing. That's the stair where she always stops.

Simply halfway. With a smile.

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead. Steady as she goes.