I love this time of year and I take it very seriously. Many years ago, I had this horrible sensation that time was running out. My babies were growing up, my job was all-consuming with no real sense of fulfillment, my husband was busy living his dreams and I was starting to feel my age. Yet, I plugged away. Life had become one rote habit after another and, yet, in every sense of the word, I was “successful”. From the outside, I had it all. Most of the time, however, I was left wondering,

“Is this all there is?”

Some may call it mid-life, others a crisis, but for me it was a catalytic moment in time.

While we never really know why some things happen, what happened next was a true ignitor, launching me on a new trajectory and completely resetting my priorities. Not that I didn’t always put family first or believe that love was more important than money, but, until that moment, I was measuring my life by a stick that others had created.

And then it happened. A series of life events that led to the closure of my private practice, a forced reduction to part-time medical work, some threatening emails from people I respected and considered friends, many nights of confusion drowned out only by a river of tears and, as time would reveal, an opportunity of a lifetime. Not everyone is so lucky.