Finite

Your everlasting summer
You can see it fading fast ...

Moment, stretch, or prolonged funk. It may be all in how you look at things. The visitor known as mid-life crisis may be dismissed after a fleeting moment or may linger for quite some time. Likely where you are and who you are with will dictate the terms. Some folks have a way of passing through mid-life without a second thought. Life is what it is and there isn't too much you can do about it. Perhaps, instead, they may look upon the visitor and surmise that their life has turned out pretty well, all things considered. Well, I say more power to those who can face it all with grace and aplomb, not dwelling on the past but focusing on the present and planning for the future.

Then there are folks like me, those who reach the mid-term mark and look back with more than a tinge of regret, intoning an incessant mantra of shoulda, woulda, coulda. What do you do when you feel that you have wound up at a place far removed from what you dreamed about? Some might say, "Oh, no worries, just go and set things to right." That may be advice for a younger man whose spirit doesn't bear the ragged scars of many a past wound. At a certain point, it just feels that your port of opportunity is empty and all ships have sailed. However, given how brief and how finite our life's span truly is, we need to find a way to embrace a new perspective. Mid-life means "middle of life". That means that you still have quite some ways to go. That means that you still have time to find some comfort and some joy, and to make a difference to those around you.