yes that I was cured of all my ills and felt the way I did years ago and could walk and dance and do the things I love to do again and the pain was gone.

Satine~~~You need a girlie day for yourself~~if you have pals go to lunch and shopping, buy yourself something you would not normaly buy that makes you happy. If you do not have friends to go to lunch with like I usually do not~~go by yourself and do the same thing.

Do I have a secret wish~~~mine is crazy and when asked I always say this~~World Peace~~~

Ladies I do not know how old you are but what makes me feel good and happy with myself is doing my yoga??? You can do it at any age and with any limitations. I am 62 most folks in the class are from 55 up, one sweetheart of a lady with be 88 tomorrow she is my hero;)

Yes. To play the piano.

I took lessons as a child, but could never learn to read music. I played very well 'by ear' but once my teachers learned I could not read music, they would "fire" me as a student. It was part hearing the music, and part feeling how I moved when the notes were played....that was how I knew to play.

My back surgery caused some nerve damage and now I don't "feel" my body like I used to. I've tried to learn to read music since then, but I just can't retain it.

It makes me sad, because I want so much for the music to flow from the pages, through my eyes, and into the piano.

Dances.

To retire. At least that's how I feel today. :-)

Hi Satine,

As Popeye in the comics used to say ... "I am ... what I am".

It seems rather too bad that we are so fixated on youth ... and all of the models showing off stuff are not only young ... but as beautiful as all get out, as well.

The clinic where they were giving me the ultra-sound to guide the needle to shrink my varicose veins are fairly strongly (addicted?) to helping (mainly) women go through a number of procedures to not show their age.

Hey, gals - I got news for ya!

That's a losing proposition! Trying to keep that wolf from the door is a bet that one can't win!

On the other hand ... when Sue's Mom came to visit us in Korea when Sue was about 25, the Korean women couldn't believe how good she, a teacher, probably about 50, looked: they figured that she looked more like Sue's sister. In Korea most women over their 30s looked rather old, as life was rather a tough game for most of them.

While I don't advocate letting ourselves go, at the same time I think that it's rather important for us to grow old with as much grace as we can, but without using drastic measures in the attempt to block the aging.

Back in 1939 when World War II started and the English elected rather a bulldog called Churchill to be Prime Minister, he began the idea of putting up one's index and middle finger in a "V", to affirm that we were aiming at "Victory" in the war.

In more recent years, maybe beginning in the 60s, many of the out-of-the-rut folks, mainly young people, used that symbol to affirm that they yearned for "Peace".

It seems to me that "Peace", like a "Peach" doesn't appear out of thin air.

If we don't have roots and trunks plus branches, leaves ... and flowers ... we don't get peaches.

If we don't have roots and trunks of justice, and branches and leaves of compassion, with some love for blossoms ...

... we ain't a gonna get peace: it doesn't appear out of thin air, either.

We need an increasing level of fairness in the ways in which the reources of the world are distributed, as well, I think, for as we proceed down the road of increasing disparities of income and wealth, in almost all cases they have found in history that such situations result in revolution, when the disadvantaged people become hungry and desparate enough.

It was only a few centuries ago that the population of the world was one billion ... then in rather short order, from the historians' point of view, two billion ...

... and now we're well over six billion, going on 7.

Arable land is finite ... and tends to deteriorate ... plus, as warming takes place, some of the deserts, including the Sahara, are expanding. If your forebears for centuries have been herdsmen, following their cattle as they migrated seeking pasture ... when the dry weather stunts or kills the grass, then your cattle die ... what can you do then?

We've fished a large portion of many of the traditionally edible fish out of the sea, so now, after re-naming some of them, are eating fish that our forebears would have turned up their noses at the suggestion that they eat them.

The amount of petroleum that had been used prior to a hundred years ago, you could have stuck in your eye ... and, while it took millions of years to produce it ... we've been profligate in the ways that we've used it.

Do you think that possibly our grandkids may choose to hate us for having spoiled ourselves so thoroughly?

ole joyful

Yes, I do have a secret wish..but if I told anyone it wouldn't be a secret now would it? LOL But it does go along somewhat with what another one posted here.

I have several, but they will always be secrets. ;)

I wish I could tap dance. I love the happy sound the taps make.

I also have the same wish as Ravencajun--only the wish is for Harry.

I could have written the exact same thing as Ravencajun.

I can't seem to accept the fact that my body is "worn out."

I don't have any of the more common health problems; blood pressure is okay, no cholesterol problems, or thyroid or heart or lung problems, and for that I am grateful

I have "diagnosed" my self, and my problem is the same as one of the worst problems our country has: it is the infrastructure! The report on my spinal scans read like a PDR.

My theme song is "Ole Man River" . . body all aching and racked with pain.

I do the best I can with whatever needs to be done, it just takes a long time and requires lots of breaks.

Sue

Thanks for responding to my question. I stated it with a feeling of fantasy-that is what a wish means to me. I know I could have wished that I don't have colon cancer, that my daughter isn't struggling with drugs and other issues, that my husband would still be here with me, that I didn't need to be on meds to keep my depression and anxiety under control.I can't change any of that-just do the best I can but sometimes it is a release of sorts to wish for something that most likely won't happen. I think it helps to occasionally take a mental break from our "real life". Hope everyone has fun with this thread. Satine

Satine I can sympathize with you but you can look pretty again by doing just a few things. Get yourself a nice wig, I got a Raquel Welch one that is so light and believable and I wear it on special occasions. It looks just like my old hair and I love it. Wear a tinted moisturizer to give yourself an even skin tone and us a rub in blush to look perky. The chin hairs, well just shave them off, and no it won't grow back thicker. Get a nice pair of jeans and bright or pastel tops, a pair of earrings and a bracelet. You'll look wonderful but the best part is this. The people who love you don't really mind how you look, they just love you. I get dressed and made up every day but I do it for me. I feel better when I look in the mirror and see some color instead of my very white blank face lol. Give it a try.

Yayagal, I know you are right and I am guilty of not doing any of the things you suggested. I seldom wear makeup even for work and I interact with many people every day. I am considering the wig although comfort is more important to me than vanity. I have heard that wigs are much more well made than they used to be so maybe I'll consider that. Chin hair-gets shaved every day. I panic when I think of being unable to shave because of being ill or otherwise not able to do it. Yuk! I know that people don't care how I look and honestly I don't notice other people's looks but I do remember that looking good and feeling good certainly can give you a boost. Earings---I guess I should have included enough guts to get my ears pierced in my wish. Thanks for the encouragement. Satine

No secret wish here........I'm always fixating on my weight and wrinkles and when I mentioned it to a friend not to long ago she said, I don't even know why you worry about it....You look pretty good for your age and with everything you've gone through........I laughed at the time but decided to take it to heart. It sure makes it easier to live with. I'm thankful that I made it through a ruptured colon, breast cancer and lung cancer.....heck who cares what the heck I look like or how many extra pounds I have.........I've decided to listen to my friend and not worry about it.

Seeing 'that old lady' in the mirror is *annoying*, isn't it? I don't like her collapsing face, and if I turn around, I don't like the bulges she has just above her waist. Why are her arms and legs so thin, while her 'middle' looks all bunched up? Why can't she open jars or twist a handle the way she used to? Why can't she stand on a step ladder and change a ceiling light bulb without feeling faint because her neck is being compressed?

Maybe if nobody had ever noticed her...if people had never looked at her twice or men had never whistled...if she'd never been chosen to model...

OTOH, there's a freedom in not having to present a 'face'. OK is good enough. After all, you MUST accept it. That Seven-Zero arrives next month. At least I don't frighten animals or small children. LOL