It's a cold,wet day here as I slowly warm up after freezing my a**e off in a vineyard for the last four hours pruning vines. I think back to the warm days and nights of my time as a pilot with a few GA operators in PNG. I would have loved to stay there but fate decreed otherwise. I made a king sized mistake, and literally crashed out of a career in aviation.
That was over twelve years ago and only earlier this year did I finally get my foot back in the door. I now get an occasional flight in Pa 31's ferrying them around the countryside. Note the word; occasional! Otherwise my full time employment is fruit picking at $24 a bin (just over 1 hour a bin) and pruning grape vines and orange trees @$13.20 an hour.
What would I rather do full time?
Was it worth getting a CPL ?
Is it worth spending my hard earned cash keeping my command m/e IFR rating current?
Of course it bl***y well is!!!! 
You only live twice. Once when
you're born. Once when
you've looked death in the face.