many thanks for your thoughtful comment – and for letting us see how one can remain open to the unfolding of life whatever it may bring. And when my whole hormonal system was in disarray, producing exhaustion, anxiety and a range of minor ailments, all fortunately now gone, I used to LONG simply to walk down the road feeling ordinary, feeling normal….

But as you say, one of the gifts of age is perspective. It’s quite easy for me to see now that the first third of my life was dedicated to “absorbing”, the second third to “doing”, and now this final third to what I call for convenience’ sake “reflecting”.

There are times when I think I made some very bad decisions, particularly involving career and finances. There will be no retirement at 65 for me, as I will have to continue earning money. Strangely, I don’t feel resentful about it at all, because those same decisions that reduced my income enriched my life – I’ve already done many of the things retirees spend decades longing for!

There’s much to be said for re-gaining a normal life, isn’t there? While I was in the midst of making some necessary career decisions back in the 70′s, a colleague asked, “What do you want?” I didn’t think for even a second before I said, “I want to be ordinary.” Well, I seem to have managed that, at least.