I was fascinated from your article and eagerly read it from top to bottom!

The idea to give the term "mid life crisis" a positive connotation is indeed a really good one! People need difficulties for their development. I think, it actually is a matter of "how" difficult it needs to be. There is plenty of room on the on the branch on which the bird sits. Too much of heaviness and the branch is going to brake, not enough of it and will only wobble a little bit and one just moves on.

I found it interesting to look up the dictionary for the definition of "crisis" and found out that there are significant differences between the German and the English wiki-entry. In the German one it says:

The crisis (κρίσιςkrísis: originally' opinion',' judgement',' decision', later more in the sense of' escalation') refers to a problematic decision situation connected with a turning point. In the various scientific disciplines,"crisis" is addressed in very different ways: in medicine and psychology, in economics and sociology (sociology as crisis science) as well as in ecology and systems theory.

English:

A crisis (from the Greek κρίσις - krisis, plural: "crises"; adjectival form: "critical") is any event that is going (or is expected) to lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community, or whole society. Crises are deemed to be negative changes in the security, economic, political, societal, or environmental affairs, especially when they occur abruptly, with little or no warning. More loosely, it is a term meaning "a testing time" or an "emergency event"

Also a crisis is a very tough time while being in the middle of it and only reflected on positively in the retrospect. Having a crisis and finding pleasure in it wouldn't be one, right? :-))

Not to condemn to feel desperate in the eye of the hurricane is not easy though, cause people who witness a person within a crisis are eager to talk this person into being "okay" and want them to behave happy and content again. That pushes people even deeper into their crisis because they do not feel accepted while they struggle. But even this can be looked at in a positive way: once one survived this form of feeling isolated and not understood may strengthen him or her even further. Of course it also goes the other way.

During my own crisis I pictured a medicine man or a shaman who would understand what I was going through. Mostly I thought of people (close ones and others) as stupid and only talking superficial nonsense. Thankfully I do not think that any longer:)

Your two given stories are very encouraging for others and I am happy that you published them!

LOL, your picture pick is hilarious!!!