It seems like at one point or another we all face a humbling and a crumbling of the life we think we should have and our expectations of it.
Maybe because I’m at that age now, I see it all around me and have had my share of it, I assume this is a mid life phenomenon.
This crumbling changes you. But not in a way that can be understood without a personal experience with it.
I find you can usually tell when someone has come through it.
They understand the pain of the struggle because when they see you in it, they all give you the same look. The look that says, “I recognize the hell you are going through, and it sucks so bad.”
If you talk with them, they don’t minimize it or gloss over it. They really don’t say much of anything, because they know words can’t fix it, but they do give you hope for the other side of the pain.
These people are scarred so beautifully. They have a level of compassion they could never otherwise have, because if you don’t know, you can’t know. And they know.