The reality is that every lifetime inevitably involves degrees of suffering, and it is the tools that we possess to help us deal with that suffering, and our response to suffering that ultimately define how happy or fulfilled we are. My greatest challenge was to come in my late thirties and early forties, when it became increasingly apparent my natural assumption that I would one day become a mother was not going to be realised. After laparoscopic surgery to remove Stage IV endometriosis from my bowel, bladder, ovaries, liver and diaphragm, my gynaecologist asked my why I was postponing having a baby. Immediately after the surgery (and before my fertility rate started diving like a gannet) was most likely my best opportunity of ever getting pregnant. There was only one hurdle . . . I was single. And had been for several years.