Tuesday Thoughts And Your Story

Isabelle
Jun 17
3 min read

Midlife Is an Autofictional Story

Hi Friends,

I trust you found the look at your values helpful from last week.Today, I heard something in an interview that stirred something deep inside me.The author was describing her book and said it was “autofiction”—a blend of autobiography and fiction, based on her life but shaped by imagination, intention, and choice. And something in me whispered, Yes. That’s exactly what we’re doing. Whether we’ve walked through divorce, loss, or simply the quiet reckoning that comes with getting older, midlife invites us into a kind of rewriting.Not denial. Not pretending. But storytelling—with power. Because the truth is:

the old story is over.

And we are still the author.

In our younger years, much of our narrative was written for us—by expectations, by the roles we were handed, by survival, by who we thought we needed to be to feel safe or accepted.But here, now, in this sacred in-between space? We get to pick up the pen again. And if I’m honest, this isn't the storyline I thought I'd be writing in my fifties. I never expected to be single at this stage of life, let alone needing to go back to work and rebuild from the ground up.There are days I feel strong and lit up by possibility. And then there are moments—quieter ones—where I feel that ache, that sting of comparison, when I see women my age slowing down, traveling with their husbands, savoring retirement.

There’s a grief in that, too.But there’s also a new kind of freedom. Both. I can hold both. Because even though it’s not the chapter I imagined, I get to plan my days without criticism.I get to dream without someone questioning if it’s “too much” or "too silly".I get to step forward without being made small.And that, in itself, is life giving.

We get to write a new version of ourselves—rooted in truth, shaped by experience, but no longer confined by the past. It’s still our story, but now we’re allowed to add a little color, a little light, a little imagination.

Maybe in this version, we’re bolder.We speak our minds without fear. We travel somewhere alone and fall in love with our own company. We start dancing again, painting again, saying “no” again—and mean it. We can let go of the tired old chapters filled with guilt, shrinking, or trying to earn love.

We can slip in a few new scenes—ones where we follow curiosity, where we take up space, where we become the heroine we always were, underneath it all. Because that’s the beauty of this “autofictional” season:

It honors what was… but it doesn’t have to be confined by it. It lets us imagine what’s possible while still standing on the truth of what we’ve lived.

You don’t need to erase the past. But you also don’t have to let it write the ending.

So I’ll ask you—gently, boldly: What’s the next plot twist you want to write? What version of you have you been waiting to meet on the page of your own becoming?

The pen is in your hands now. And you, my friend, are a brilliant storyteller. And we love a good plot twist!

This weeks's affirmation:

I am the author of

my next chapter.

Isabelle

You are loved. Deeply loved. Loved beyond measure.

Until next time,