THE LONG MIDDLE

NEW STORIES EVERY WEEK on substack

mychronicwisdom

https://chronicwisdombymary.substack.com

The Compass Points

These are not chapters.
They are places people tend to stand when life changes.

Choose the one that feels closest to where you are now.

Compass Point 1 What Happened?

For the moment when life no longer makes sense, and you’re trying to understand what changed before you try to move forward.

Compass Point 2→ Who Am I Now?

For the in-between season when the person you were no longer fits, and the next version of you hasn’t fully arrived.

Compass Point 3Who Stands With Me Now?

For noticing who stays, who drifts, and how support quietly reshapes itself when your world gets smaller.

Compass Point 4 What Has Meaning Now?

For the slow re-sorting of what truly matters after survival is no longer the only task.

Compass Point 5What Is Essential Now?

For the moment when the noise falls away and you begin choosing what you can no longer live without.

Compass Point 6What Can I Trust Now?

For learning what feels steady, reliable, and true when certainty is no longer a given.

Compass Point 7What Still Matters in My Soul?
For listening to the quiet truths that endure after everything else has shifted.

Compass Point 8 Where Do I Go From Here?


For the first, careful steps of motion when life begins to return and possibility starts to whisper again.

Compass Point 9 → What Brings Me Back to Life?

For noticing the small revivals and sparks that remind you you’re still made of living.

Compass Point 10How Do I Hold It All Together?


For learning how to live inside a life you didn’t plan with steadiness, honesty, and grace.

The Compass Points

10 Essential Questions that serve as navigational trail markers in the Long Middle

2/2/20261 min read