The In-Between: Where I’ve Learned to Live
By Brockelll | Wanderlust Women: Turning Crossroads into Catalysts for Extraordinary Living

I’ve lived most of my life in the in-between.

That liminal, often uncomfortable space between who you were and who you're becoming.
Between what was and what’s not yet.
Between one story ending and another still being written.

Some people pass through it quickly—holding their breath until they land on solid ground again. But I’ve made a home here. I’ve swept the floors, lit the candles, and learned to speak the strange language of thresholds.

It didn’t start out as a choice. At first, it felt like exile.

The Unraveling Before the Becoming

I remember the first time the ground gave out from beneath me.
The moment the narrative I had built my identity on—wife, mother, caretaker—began to fray. It wasn’t one big moment, but a slow dissolve. A fading of clarity. A quiet whisper that something wasn’t right, that I wasn’t right.

There was no map for where I was going. Only the knowing that I couldn’t go back.

At the time, I thought I was falling apart. But now I see—I was falling through.

Through the illusions.
Through the old roles.
Through the expectations I had internalized about what it meant to be good, to be worthy, to be loved.

In those raw, early days, I found myself clinging to certainty. I tried to rush the process, to fix the fog with plans and productivity. But the in-between isn’t interested in neat timelines or 10-step blueprints.

It asks us to be still. To listen. To shed.

And so I did.
Grudgingly at first. Then with reverence.

Crossroads as Catalysts

For women like us—self-reflective, soulful, seeking—crossroads are inevitable.
Maybe it’s the end of a marriage. The death of a parent. A career that no longer fits. An empty nest. A health scare. The quiet ache of a life that looks fine on the outside but feels hollow on the inside.

No matter the details, what remains is the ache of transition.
The realization that the old skin no longer fits, but the new one hasn’t grown in yet.

We’re not who we were.
We’re not yet who we’re becoming.

And the world doesn’t always make space for that.
It rushes us to choose a label, pick a direction, “bounce back.”

But what if the in-between isn’t a detour?
What if it’s the very place where the most sacred becoming happens?

What if it’s not a pause—
It’s a portal.

Tending the Threshold

There’s an old saying that change is the only constant. But what they don’t tell you is that change can be lonely. It can feel like everyone else is moving on with their lives while you’re still stuck in the hallway between rooms.

This is where I’ve found my calling—not to lead women out of the in-between, but to walk with them through it. To help them tend the soil of uncertainty. To name what’s been lost. To honor the ache. To listen for the new language that’s trying to emerge.

When we stop rushing through the in-between and start honoring it, something miraculous happens:
We realize we’re not broken. We’re in bloom.

We don’t need to fix ourselves.
We need to unfold.

This is the soul work. The sacred work. The quiet, gritty, radiant work of emergence.

Lessons from the In-Between

After walking with hundreds of women through this terrain—and returning to it again and again myself—I’ve come to believe that the in-between holds some of life’s deepest wisdom:

1. Grief is a Portal to Grace
   Every transition involves some kind of loss. Even when we’re choosing the change.
   Grieving what was isn’t weakness—it’s sacred.
   When we allow ourselves to mourn the chapters closing, we make space for what is longing to be born.
   
   

2. Not Knowing is Holy Ground
   Our culture idolizes clarity, but the truth is, transformation begins in the dark.
   Not knowing isn’t failure. It’s a fertile void. A spiritual invitation to trust what cannot yet be seen.
   
   

3. The Body Knows Before the Mind Does
   So many of the women I’ve worked with say they “just knew” something needed to change—even if they couldn’t explain why.
   Our bodies are wise. They whisper truths before we can put words to them.
   Listening to your body in the in-between is like listening to a compass under water. Quiet, but true.
   
   

4. Community is Medicine
   Transitions can isolate us.
   But shared language and safe space can be life-giving.
   When women gather and speak their truths aloud, something shifts. Shame dissolves. Courage grows. Clarity returns.
   
   

5. Emergence Isn’t a Destination—It’s a Devotion
   We don’t arrive at some perfect version of ourselves.
   We continue to unfold, deepen, soften, rise.
   Emergence is not a one-time event—it’s a rhythm of the soul. A returning to ourselves over and over again.
   

The Invitation

If you are standing at a crossroads right now,
If you are in the sacred in-between—
Shedding an old identity, but not yet clear on what comes next...

I see you.
I am you.

You don’t need to have the answers.
You don’t need to rush the process.
You don’t need to know where this path is leading.

You only need to know this:
You are not lost.
You are becoming.

And there is power, wisdom, and beauty in that becoming.

Want to Go Deeper?

This season of transition inspired me to create something new—a six-week guided coaching journey for women who are in this very place.

It’s called Emergence: A Guided Journey into the Next Extraordinary Version of You
Because the in-between is not a pause—it’s a portal.

This journey is for women who feel like the life they were living no longer fits, and who are ready to honor what’s falling away while making space for what’s yet to be revealed.

Over six weeks, we’ll gather in sacred space for ceremony, reflection, and small-group coaching. You’ll receive a custom workbook, guided weekly prompts, and access to a pop-up community of fellow wayfinders.

It’s not a program that promises to “fix” you.
It’s a space to come home to yourself.

To name the grief.
To honor the wisdom.
To reclaim the parts of you that have been waiting.

If you’re ready to turn your crossroads into a catalyst, I invite you to walk with us.

Your emergence is already unfolding.

—

With reverence for the threshold,
Brockell

Founder of Wanderlust Women
Turning Crossroads into Catalysts for Extraordinary Living