Some of these have been turned into guest blog posts and, today, I’m going to feature a couple of edited-down stories from readers.

At the age of 42, Amira Fathimath left her home country in the Indian Ocean with three children and 14 suitcases. Her eldest was a depressed and emotional 16-year-old, her youngest broke his arm the day before their departure and had his arm in a cast. They settled in a Western country where they had no family, no friends, where everything from language to lifestyle was alien.

She learned to drive a car, at 50 she earned a double Masters and a PhD, she volunteered in charities working alongside interns younger than her kids. At age 55, she became a qualified and registered mental health practitioner and got a contract from one of the charities for which she volunteered. She says earlier in her career it was all about providing for the household as a single mother. But, she’s appreciating that, as she’s moved into the second half of her fifties, she has more choice and freedom to pursue career and life paths that feel more personal and customized to her soul. Life gets better with age.

Larry Stelley coaches midlife executives and is founder of Youth Biz Academy, a non-profit, providing business training for 8 - 12 yr olds. He’s now 73 years old, but about ten years ago, he saw his life as just a series of failures. He realized he needed to change his habits including ending his addiction to alcohol and drugs. His life started to shift as he writes below:

“As I began to understand where potential, possibility and transformation come from – the source of it, I started to experience hopefulness and my own potential in a whole new way. Being in the feeling of potential, possibility about my life, my work, my expression in the world is incredibly enriching. It does something for me. It lifts me. It carries me forward and is the soil from which new fruit, new ideas and fresh starts grow. Allowing myself to dream, to hope while grounded in the understanding of my true nature, and where my experience is coming from, has allowed me to have a whole new relationship to living life, transformation and creating.”

While he’s seen his series of challenges - with family businesses, with his savings, with his health - he’s learned a new sense of resilience and feels dedicated to a new set of priorities. He writes, “As long as I am breathing, it’s never too late.”