Learning
When you hit a spell of trouble, ask "What is it trying to teach me?" The lessons aren't always happy ones, but they keep coming. It isn't a bad idea to pause occasionally for an inward look. By midlife, most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.
We learn by growing older, by suffering, by loving, by bearing with the things we can't change, by taking risks.
As Norman Douglas said "There are some things you can't learn from others. You have to pass through the fire."