Spring Renewal and The Midlife Awakening
By Jennifer Van Rossum
Like spring, midlife is a season of renewal - a time to shed the old and make space for new growth. Just as nature prunes away what no longer serves, so too must we let go of outdated beliefs, identities, and attachments. This is not a loss but an invitation to flourish. It is an opportunity to unlearn so that we may relearn, to unbecome so that we may become.
Franciscan Friar, Richard Rohr, describes midlife as a threshold - a necessary passage from the first half of life to the second. The first half of life is about building the container of our identity. It is a time of striving, seeking security, and proving ourselves. But eventually, for those willing to listen, an inner shift begins. The second half of life is no longer about building, but about expanding and deepening. It is a time to move beyond ego, beyond external validation, and into a more authentic, soulful existence.
Midlife is not about reinvention, it is about remembering. It is a homecoming, a return to the essence of who we were before the world shaped us. Just as spring reveals the earth’s endless cycle of renewal, midlife reminds us of our own capacity to grow and flourish.
But how do we navigate this transition? It starts with reflection. We all have a beginning. And in the beginning, before the demands of adulthood, before the expectations of relationships and conditioning of the world, there was a time when we were simply ourselves - curious, present, and whole.
Who were you before the world got its hands on you?
This is one of my favorite questions to ask clients who are in the throes of midlife transition. It is an invitation to excavate the Self (with a capital S), the part of us buried under cultural expectations, family narratives, and layers of life experience.
When we begin this work, we begin to frame midlife not as a crisis, as Chip Conley describes, but as a chrysalis - a transformation that calls us to shed outdated beliefs, reorient our values, and step into a renewed sense of purpose. Here we find clarity and empowerment to choose what we hold onto and what we release, thus curating the soil for our new growth.
Who were you before the world told you who to be?
Midlife is a time to cultivate this wisdom, to pause and ask: Am I living in alignment with my deepest values? Mindfulness teaches us to embrace impermanence, to be fully present with the unfolding of our lives rather than clinging to what was.
Similarly, the Buddha taught that when we stop resisting change, we find freedom. True freedom comes from welcoming possibility and opening ourselves to the mystery unfolding within us, between us, and all around us.
The transition into the second half of life is often initiated by a deep sense of dissatisfaction with what once fulfilled us. But rather than resisting this shift, we are called to surrender to it - to trust that what is falling away is making space for something deeper, more meaningful.
Like the earth in spring, we, too, have the power to renew, to cultivate richer soil for our next stage of life. What will you shed? What will you nurture? What new growth is waiting to emerge?
May you embrace the unfolding of midlife with mindfulness, surrendering to the expansion that awaits you.
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