I was speaking with someone the other night who was relating an experience and in the description, he said that he had been “between wives”   which led me to think about all of the permutations of the word “between.”

“Between” bridges two separate places, people, things, emotions, events.  It supposes there will be two as in “between wives” but sometimes it is merely a hope or an expectation.  We might describe our work life as being between jobs, or our education as between semesters or our dilemma as between a rock and a hard place but it is always the connecting thread that links the past with the future and “in Between” is a place for dreaming, hoping and even decision making.  It is where we  consider where we went wrong and how we will change ourselves to fit this new place that is at the other end.  It is where we decide to cut our hair, shave our beard, change our wardrobe, smile more, or maybe be kinder but knowing that the zebra can’t change his stripes, that last is simply our response to our past self, the very same self who will move through “in between” until the other end is reached.

The only absolute “between” is that journey from birth to death so every day of our lives is in a state of “in between.”