Each of us has a soundtrack or probably several that serve as a backdrop through different times, creating the white noise of our personal lives and professional careers. Sometimes the personal, the professional and the song intersect and the harmony can be tremendous.

A year ago or so, the song in the energy business was the hit from “The Lego Movie,” a mind-numbing tune with the fairly mindless refrain, “Everything is awesome.” And during that period, Midstream Business readers were probably humming the same tune as their kiddos.

My son certainly didn’t escape the thrall, and that chorus will elicit smiles from industry colleagues for years to come. Fact is, oil was selling for more than $100 per barrel. There were more jobs than workers. Hiring freezes were unheard of. Promotions were a regular occurrence, if for no other reason than to make room for the dazzling new talent needed across the industry. It seemed there was no end in sight to the awesome days ahead.

For now, though, those days are gone, following the long and winding road of success that has marked the oil and gas patch. That’s the bad news and the good news. Likewise, we refer to the energy industry as cyclical.

We talk of the energy industry’s peaks and valleys, like those that may define a long road. The scenery may feature both loveliness and sorrow, and ultimately, once you travel it, you wind up somewhere different.

One of my favorite quotes that has appeared in these pages came from Jed Shreve, a principal at Deloitte LLP, when we were discussing the infrastructure that’s desperately needed to move the hydrocarbons now accessible through the fracking phenomenon.

“It’s the beauty of private ownership of mineral rights … for the most part, you’ve got the free market driving all of this infrastructure growth,” Shreve told me a year ago.

Which brings us to that great ballad by The Beatles, “The Long and Winding Road,” and how to reconcile that tune with the personal and professional of the energy business.

While things may appear dire with events that have been repeated under more headlines than are worth counting, there is an upside to this long and winding road: private equity.

If one thing has been evident in recent months, it’s that private equity wants in on the midstream sector. And as it turns out, private equity and its midstream-heavy investors are in a unique position to prosper in this environment. Take a look at the new Moda Midstream LLC and the dozens of other private equity-backed acquisitions of late. Moda, a Houston-based liquids terminaling and logistics provider, announced in March an initial equity commitment of $750 million from EnCap Flatrock Midstream and Moda’s own management team.

There are a few potential road- blocks. Editors at the The Wall Street Journal suggested recently that tax re- form could create problems for MLPs, in turn disenfranchising their potential for profit through private equity.

Capitol insiders have drawn up various proposals for tax reform. Last year, it came close to fruition when a retiring senator had bipartisan support for a plan he’d finessed for years. Then, he left Capitol Hill and tax reform fell into the regular sham- bles we’re so accustomed to seeing in Washington. Check that off the list of potential boogeymen to disrupt private equity.

Next up: increasing interest rates. For several years now, interest rates have been profoundly low with 10-year U.S. Treasury notes drawing less than 2%. That’s translated into an exceptional borrowing market for companies that need capital for high-dollar infrastructure. That borrower market can’t sustain itself indefinitely. But it’s unlikely the come hither/back off samba of the Federal Reserve is nearing an end.

It’s a treat, then, to conclude with a hint of optimism for the industry as I move to another position. Thank you for indulging my work, taking my calls, teaching me and talking with me.

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