Hello · It's Danielle
NOTES FROM THE MIDDLE
Age, Life, Everything
The Weekly Letter
A small, honest moment from each week. Delivered quietly on Sundays.
A work in progress
I'm finishing a book called The Yin of It All. Sign up to get early excerpts before it is published.
The Archive · Page 3
Issue No. 15
I have been talking about running a half marathon for fifteen years. The leap story lets us fantasize about a new self without having to practice being her. But what if there is no big leap? Only a bearing.
Issue No. 14
The Winter Olympics are on in Milano. The camera keeps cutting to the faces before the start. But I find myself less interested in the medal table and more interested in the years. The invisible ones.
Issue No. 13
My algorithm has decided we are galloping directly into the Year of the Fire Horse. Bold exits. Unapologetic ambition. The Fire Horse does not dabble. She charges. The question is what kind of fire I actually want.
Issue No. 12
I have been an optimizer since long before I ever knew there was a word for it. For a long time, I thought it was about efficiency. About not wasting time. I've realized, gently and a little late, that it's not really about time at all.
Issue No. 11
Some decades felt roomy. Almost indulgent in their length. Others disappeared while we were standing inside them. Neuroscience has an explanation, and the biggest variable isn't age.
Issue No. 10
A quiet, slightly academic word kept surfacing in my conversations this week. Not a glamorous word. Not one that trends on Instagram. But the one I most hope my kids carry with them into the world.
Issue No. 09
When I look back at the elementary school years, my nostalgia isn't really about youth or chaos or even my kids being little. It's about purpose. About being needed. About life worth.
Issue No. 08
Someone asked me recently if it's scary to share my writing. I paused. Not to be polite, but to answer honestly. The truth surprised me. It has something to do with the twin gifts of aging.
Issue No. 07
Ten families. A New Year's Eve. The grown children arrived already themselves. They didn't need managing or translation. They added to the room instead of pulling at it. This is a different kind of success.
Issue No. 06
I was so busy pre-grieving the empty nest that I missed something obvious. My friends were standing in exactly the same place. And the emotional shape of it feels strangely familiar.