Have you lost anyone to suicide? During the Great Recession, I lost five friends - all men 42 to 52 - during a two and a half year period when I was feeling cursed myself.

Ever meet someone who was exceptionally brilliant on one subject, but clueless when it came to the rest of life? Yes, I’ve met my share in Silicon Valley. On the other hand, have you ever met someone who was a sage on one subject, but otherwise lost? Probably not so much.

Do you feel more like a silly rabbit, or a wise owl? This metaphor came up recently at our personal development workshop, Meet Your Better Half: How to Unlock Your Right Brain. A proverbial “Left Brain Thinker” confessed, “as a practicing attorney for several decades, I’ve always been skeptical about personal development work and dump it all into what feels like the dubious “woo-woo” category.”

Joseph Campbell wrote, “I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

Recently, I had an exquisite Baja sunset conversation. The sky was ablaze with every color of the rainbow. Silhouetted whales were breaching. My friend and I stumbled through a conversation. I say stumbled because we were talking about things we forget.

“I can see clearly now the rain is gone I can see all obstacles in my way Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind It's gonna be a bright Bright sunshiny day.”

I’m just as likely to visit the Lost & Found in my 60th year as I did in my 6th year when I was in kindergarten. Here’s what’s gone missing and what’s shown up on the verge of my big 6-0h...Oh...Oh.

“If I can meet triumph and disaster and treat these two imposters just the same...” Rudyard Kipling I chuckled when I saw the recent headline that 47.2 is the age when misery peaks in midlife. I was that age a dozen years ago and I can vouch for the researchers’ findings.

Societies have historically celebrated the movement of an individual from one part of life to another by creating festivities or formalities that mark that rite of passage. This rite of passage could be birth, puberty, marriage, having children, or death.

I know a catalyst when I see one. Having been on the Boards of Burning Man, the Esalen Institute, and Glide Memorial Church, I saw how these singular locations led to more global transformational festivals, personal growth retreat centers, and urban progressively-minded churches.