Did you ever think your life would come to this?

A friend asked me this over drinks over the weekend. I paused at the question but thought 'I think it's probably better than I thought'. However, had she asked me two years ago, it would have been a very different answer. In fact, a few years ago I tearily posed the very same question to someone else. My day to day was very demanding and I had little time for myself to even exercise for twenty minutes. There were a lot of people needing my time and very little enjoyment in what I did. While I'm still extremely busy, a lot of the pressures have lessened.

When you get to a certain age, there's a lot of hard and crappy obligations - dying and infirm parents, difficult teenage problems, health problems, money problems. Life in general and day to day existence is not a lot of fun.

However, when you wade through the swamp of misery and exhaustion, there is still light on the other side. It's just very hard to see at times.

Last night my Facebook, in it's creepy listening stalk-y way, threw up this article on the midlife dip and the happiness curve. There is a gap in our expectations (perhaps because our expectations were ill conceived in the first place). However, satisfaction in life can and will reappear when you least expect it. Don't bottle up your dissatisfaction, don't feel you need to put on a positive show, because it's all normal. Most importantly, don't discount friends who feel this way. If they seem to have everything going for them, it doesn't mean they can't be struggling.

For me, having had quite a few extraordinarily difficult years, being asked the question made me realise how far I'd come, and more importantly, how much everything had changed. Some good changes, some sad changes however for me, as the traveller in my life, I was faring much better through the rough seas.

That was quite a comfort for me. I'd not been aware of the change, and yet suddenly here I am.

As my friend concluded, we just have to make sure we make the most of the next 20 years!

Linking with #ParentPower as someone shared an article with me that said Happiness = Reality - Expectations on my post this week about finding your passion. The article lay it as an issue with the 24-40 year olds, but with the people I've been meeting at the round of 50th's I've been attending, I think it seems to lie more as a signature of their age...Anyway, I've been thinking about the midlife dip and the happiness curve, and it made me think of this post.