The Theoretical Midpoint

I don’t spend a whole lot of time looking back on the past. Whatever has happened cannot be undone. Similarly, I don’t spend a whole lot of time looking down the path a worrying about what’s to come. I try to live in the present. It wasn’t always this way for me.

My past habit was to live in the “wreckage of the future” spending lots of time and energy planning for contingencies and thinking about different ways to navigate problems that didn’t even exist yet. I can tell you from my experience that living too far out ahead of myself was not a very useful approach.

That’s one of the things I thought a lot about when I took up walking as a discipline about five years ago. I told myself that at the pace of walking, I’d only have to focus on the one meter radius around me. That present focus approach didn’t come very naturally to me at first, but eventually the practice paid off. I was even able to take what I’d learned on the trail and apply it in some other areas of my life.

Looking Back from the Theoretical Midpoint - US Highway 20 - Nebraska

All that being said, it’s good to take a look back every now and then and see where you’ve traveled. Today, at about thirteen miles, I crossed the point where the projected distance forward was equal to the distance already covered. It came at about sixteen hundred and fourteen miles into the pilgrimage. 

I checked the projected distance to complete the journey, and I checked my distance covered again just to make sure. I was on top of a hill with the long ribbon on US Highway 20 stretching ahead of me to the west, and miles of visibility to the east to see where I’d been. I paused a moment and looked back. The air was cool, and the sun was shining. I took a deep breath and was satisfied.

Now, I suspect this wasn’t really the halfway point in the journey. The projected distance remaining is based on an ideal calculation, and if this trip has taught me anything at all, it’s that life is never the clean cut calculus of the ideal. 

It’s also probably not the midpoint of the learning and growing this trip has afforded. That learning curve has been steep, and as things progress onward, I’m finally starting to find a rhythm and a flow. 

Nonetheless, it felt pretty good to be in the same ballpark as the midpoint of the planned journey. Like much of my professional career, I find myself behind schedule and over budget, so there are those minor challenges to address, but those solutions will present themselves when it’s time.

I’m still not sure where this really all ends, but I’m grateful to have gotten this far. I’m also looking forward to the experiences coming in the future. Just not too far out into the future.

One step, one hour, one day at a time, we’ll see how this adventure unfolds. Thank you all for the fantastic support and encouragement to date. It makes the tired feet feel quite a bit lighter.