Each year, as I approach another orbit around the sun, I usually try to dwell on the evolution that has quietly taken place within. I think of the places and people I’ve known that year, the experiences that have shaped me, the conflicts I need to resolve.

But this month, as I turned 37, things felt a bit different.

Instead of looking inward, I felt like running away from the questions brewing in my mind, for I knew that the answers – if they exist at all – remain far too illusive. Wakin...