I participated in your video in March, I just looked back at it Kiran and it was so much fun to look back at myself at months ago. So many things happened on Substack for me since then...
Csilla, I love that you went back and watched it, and yes, so much has happened for both of us since March. The live, the co-authored pieces, and the community that has quietly grown around all of it. Beautiful memories are exactly right.
As for what's being planned, September is going to be something. Midlife by Design, Not by Default: Awareness Month is shaping up to be something I'm genuinely excited about. Watch this space x
What I love about this is that you didn’t create a campaign. You created a conversation.
Midlife can feel surprisingly isolating because so many of the questions we’re asking are happening quietly inside our own heads. The power of seeing women from different countries, different lives, and different circumstances answering the same prompt is the reminder that we’re not reinventing ourselves alone.
“Not by default” may be the most important part of the phrase. So much of midlife is realizing that many things we accepted by default can still be redesigned by choice.
I am genuinely impressed by what you have done here.
You created a space for women to see themselves in one another, and that is no small thing.
"You didn't create a campaign. You created a conversation." I'm going to sit with that for a long time.
Because that's exactly the distinction that matters. A campaign asks people to perform a message. A conversation invites them to recognise themselves in someone else's truth. And that recognition, the quiet, profound oh, me too, is what actually changes something in a person.
The isolation of midlife is real and rarely spoken about honestly. You're navigating enormous internal shifts while the world largely continues as normal around you. Seeing women from different countries, different lives, different circumstances asking the same questions, that alone is medicine.
And not by default, yes. That's the whole thing. The moment you realise that what you accepted as fixed was actually a choice you never consciously made. And that you can choose differently now.
Thank you for seeing this so clearly and for saying it so beautifully x
I participated in your video in March, I just looked back at it Kiran and it was so much fun to look back at myself at months ago. So many things happened on Substack for me since then...
Beautiful memories!
Curious about what you are exactly planning!
Csilla, I love that you went back and watched it, and yes, so much has happened for both of us since March. The live, the co-authored pieces, and the community that has quietly grown around all of it. Beautiful memories are exactly right.
As for what's being planned, September is going to be something. Midlife by Design, Not by Default: Awareness Month is shaping up to be something I'm genuinely excited about. Watch this space x
Looking forward to your new initiative Kiran!
What I love about this is that you didn’t create a campaign. You created a conversation.
Midlife can feel surprisingly isolating because so many of the questions we’re asking are happening quietly inside our own heads. The power of seeing women from different countries, different lives, and different circumstances answering the same prompt is the reminder that we’re not reinventing ourselves alone.
“Not by default” may be the most important part of the phrase. So much of midlife is realizing that many things we accepted by default can still be redesigned by choice.
I am genuinely impressed by what you have done here.
You created a space for women to see themselves in one another, and that is no small thing.
That line stayed with me too.
I think recognition is what changes people.
The moment someone you’ve never met describes a feeling you thought belonged only to you.
And yes, realizing that what felt fixed was actually a choice you never consciously made is where so much change begins.
Thank you for this beautiful reflection. ❤️
❤️
"You didn't create a campaign. You created a conversation." I'm going to sit with that for a long time.
Because that's exactly the distinction that matters. A campaign asks people to perform a message. A conversation invites them to recognise themselves in someone else's truth. And that recognition, the quiet, profound oh, me too, is what actually changes something in a person.
The isolation of midlife is real and rarely spoken about honestly. You're navigating enormous internal shifts while the world largely continues as normal around you. Seeing women from different countries, different lives, different circumstances asking the same questions, that alone is medicine.
And not by default, yes. That's the whole thing. The moment you realise that what you accepted as fixed was actually a choice you never consciously made. And that you can choose differently now.
Thank you for seeing this so clearly and for saying it so beautifully x