The Middle Place – Mary Hedin

Mary Hedin –

We struggle in life to find that “Middle Place”. I think that the movement for me to my “Middle Place” started about 5 years ago. I had settled into work, adjusted well to married life, and found that the life I was and am currently living will be just fine.

Now in order to gain perfect balance in our” Middle Place”, we need to incorporate the lives of our family into the equation. M is still going through the discovery of her “Middle Place”, and I am pretty hands off and am allowing her to make the discoveries herself. I am a big fan of allowing others to experiment, try, succeed or fail. I have complete faith in what she can and will do with her life, and ultimately our lives together.

I take pride in my flexibility. Sure, I seem rigid at times but I think upon closer examination, I am pretty liberal. I understand the need for practicality and the need not to waste the opportunities or resources that we currently have, but if the opportunity is right, and the legs of a situation are strong, I see no reason why we couldn’t jump into a new stream of living, and in doing so, finding our “Middle Place” together. I love the daily discovery of my attempts to find my place and our place in this world.

Here are the final few sentences from the short. They are all at once perfect!

“Oh certainly the center is beautiful and mat seem secure, but that is, of course, only illusion. There is no stasis ever. There is never that. She turns to Aaron, holds his warm body close to her own, wanting now to comfort him as well as herself for what he does not confess he knows.”

Other than reading short stories, I enjoy reading about authors, what inspires them, their personal views of writing and their philosophies of life. I found two quotes from Hedin that dovetail well with the story as well as with my personal view of the craft and world.

Of her writing, she says, “For me it is a central need, a basic drive. I can exist only so long before I must sift through the mysteries of human behavior and clarify my experiences.”

Hedin told CA: "Some children know from their earliest exposure to music that they will become musicians, and some children know from the time they first listen to stories or hear poems that they will be writers. I made up my mind very early that I would be a writer.”

Score 9 out of 10.