I had spent years building the life I believed was right for me, raising a family and pursuing a career. Then I found myself looking at that life and wondering why it no longer felt like mine. How could something I had put so much into feel so unfamiliar?

For some of us, this unease begins in our late thirties or forties. It may arrive slowly, as a mixture of fatigue, anxiety, sadness, and occasionally despair. We may struggle to explain it, especially when our lives still look perfectly reasonable from the outside.

If we stay with these feelings long enough, we may begin to hear the questions beneath them:

What have I built my life around? Do I want the next ten, twenty, or thirty years to look like this?

Are there things I may never get to do? Is there still time for what matters to me?

What will my life look like when my children leave home, or when my parents are no longer here?

Who am I in this changing body? Can I still feel........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)