The Exiled Heir: Reclaiming Your Hidden Power at Midlife
About all those babies in baskets floating down rivers.
Midlife has a way of making you feel like something is missing.
A quiet dissatisfaction creeps in. A restlessness. Sometimes you even wake up one day and it dawns on you that the life you’ve built—your successful career, your relationships, your routines and hobbies—no longer fits quite right. You long for something more.
So you start searching.
A new job. A new car. A new romance. A new high. Something to shake things up, to reignite the fire. Something on the surface of your life—something out there that will make you happy, make you feel alive again.
But what if the thing you’re looking for isn’t out there at all?
What if what you need right now isn’t something new to be discovered—but something old to be reclaimed? What if the key to your future is not reinvention, but remembrance?
It turns out, this is how the story always goes.
What You Sent Down the River
There’s an ancient story we tell across cultures and time. A child, destined for greatness, is sent down the river. To protect them. To hide them from danger. To allow them to grow, beyond the reach of those who fear their power.
Moses, sent down the Nile in a basket, destined to lead Israel into liberation.
Sargon of Akkad, floating down the Euphrates, who will rise to rule an empire.
Romulus and Remus, abandoned on the Tiber, born to build Rome.
Horus, hidden in the marshes, until he can reclaim his father’s throne.
Karna, cast into the Ganges, fated to become a great warrior.
Of course, these characters, their storylines, and how they wield their power is complex. Karna met a tragic fate in the Kurukshetra war, where he learned of his royal status. Moses never entered the Promised Land. Sargon was a ruthless conquerer; Horus an avenger. And Romulus killed his twin Remus.
Oops.
But the big story is the same. And it has something to say to us—especially at midlife:
You were born with incredible power.
But something within you knew that in order to keep this power from being destroyed—in order for you to survive—you needed to hide it away.
So you sent this power down the river—protected, waiting for the moment you were strong enough to wield it.
Maybe that moment is now…
The Midlife Malaise Is an Invitation
It’s true.
The midlife malaise is an invitation to search for something more.
But this search is not about tweaking things on the surface of your life. Running away from your responsibilities. Chasing after achievements. Or doubling-down on your quest for so-called safety, security, and stability.
You won’t find what you’re looking for in any of those places.
Because this invitation is beckoning you to search for something you already have.
Something dormant that needs to be reawakened.
Something exiled that needs to return.
Something powerful and royal that needs to be remembered.
So the question is:
Are you ready to reclaim your true power, the version of yourself that you sent down the river?
If you are ready to welcome back your exiled heir―who you really are―here are five lessons for the journey. whether you are embarking on it at midlife or any other season of life.
For more on this midlife journey to wholeness, see my book The Way Home.
Lesson #1: You Were Sent Down the River for Protection
In the old stories, the child is sent away because they are too powerful, too much of a threat to the existing order. In our own lives, we suppress who we really are, abandoning our full potential. We learn to do this at a young age—to keep us safe, to get our needs met, to survive.
Did you catch that?
This was never about hiding because you’re unworthy or incapable. It was about protecting your powers because the world around you wasn’t ready for you yet. In truth, it may not be ready now either (see #3 below), but you are. You’ve had time to ripen, time to get stronger, and time to shed the operating patterns that might entangle you from delivering your gift to the world.
🔹 What part of yourself did you hide away?
🔹 What power, purpose, or passion did you step away from, maybe without even realizing it?
Lesson #2: You Were Raised Somewhere Else to Grow
These ancient hidden figures don’t grow up where they’re supposed to.
Horus grows up in the marshlands, not the royal palace.
Sargon is born among the elite, to a powerful high priestess, but raised by a gardener.
Romulus and Remus—sons of Mars, the god of war—are rescued and suckled by a she-wolf before being raised by a shepherd.
Karna is not raised in the kshatriya social class of rulers and warriors, as was his birthright. Instead, he is the son of a charioteer—a suta, the social class of charioteers, artisans, and storytellers.
Moses matures not among his oppressed people, but in Pharaoh’s court.
The separation from their birthright isn’t a mistake—it’s training.
The same goes for you. You might feel like things have been “off course” in life, as if you’ve wasted time and should have come around sooner. But, in fact, your nature needed to be nurtured in a particular way, even if it was difficult! Every detour, every exile, every trial was preparing you to bring forward your authentic self. You retreated from what “should have” been so that you can return in full force.
🔹 What skills, wisdom, and resilience have you developed as a result of the trials and challenges you experienced in your years away?
🔹 What has your “exile” taught you that you wouldn’t have learned otherwise?
Lesson #3: The World You Left Behind May Resist Your Return
When Moses comes back to Egypt as a representative of his people, Pharaoh doesn’t welcome him. Horus’ uncle resists his claim to the throne. Karna’s return is confused, and he ends up on the wrong side of a great war.
Returning from exile with your hidden potential isn’t always easy. People won’t likely throw you a party. They may resist the version of you that’s stepping into power (you may even resist it yourself) because it interrupts life as they know. The fact that you’ve changed changes their world. It challenges their operating patterns and power structures. It brings up questions for them that they may be afraid to answer. But don’t let that stop you from claiming your birthright!
🔹 What resistance do you experience when you start to show up more authentically? In your relationships? Career? Faith community?
🔹 What old beliefs, relationships, or fears try to pull you back into hiding?
Lesson #4: You Must Step Fully into Your Power
The hidden heir never returns to maintain the status quo. They return to lead, to fight, to rule, to liberate—to change the world! The power they once had in potential must now be embodied.
This is the hardest part of the journey—not just realizing you have potential, but choosing to live from it.
Letting your light shine means…
You face your fears.
You take risks.
You experiment.
You persevere.
🔹 What would it look like for you to fully own your power?
🔹 What is one action you can take or project you can commit to as form of expressing who you’ve become?
Lesson #5: You Are Not Who You Were—And That’s the Point
All these abandoned babies in baskets floating down the river—they don’t simply return to who they were or who they would have been. They return transformed by their trails. Refined by the fire. With creativity that could only come from the chaos they endured.
At midlife, it’s easy to look back and wish we could reclaim lost years. And maybe even feel some shame about how things have unfolded. But the truth is, we’re not meant to go back. We’re meant to bring all that we’ve learned forward.
We were sent away and hidden so that we can now make our greatest contribution to our lives, work, relationships, and the world.
🔹 Who are you now that you couldn’t have been before?
🔹 What roles can you inhabit that serve as expressions of your soul now at midlife that were not possible at earlier stages in your life?
Midlife as the Return to Power
The story of the hidden heir is not just a myth—it’s a map for transformation.
At midlife, we are called to step back into our true power, not as we once imagined, but as the version of ourselves shaped by the exile we’ve experienced, the journey we’ve endured, and all the wisdom we’ve accumulated along the way.
The question is: Will you answer the call to reclaim who you really are?
Greatness, Ben!