Running water, brain tumors, and blessings.

Interesting week so far. I was besieged yesterday by public relations people at the Hospital where my docs work, looking for them to do TV and radio interviews about Senator Kennedy's brain tumor. I work for a group of neurosurgeons, so brain tumors are common in our vocabulary. If nothing else, working for these specialists has made me appreciate each day of life. I can't count how many patients I've met who have gone along with their daily stuff and then, in one very tiny moment of time, everything changes and life is never the same. Life is short, we know that in our office. I'm blessed to be healthy.

My daughter and her family were visited this week by her husband's step-sister on her way to Nepal to work in an orphanage in the poorest country in the world. She's doing work for her PhD, studying the effect of street children on the population. I can't even imagine how these next few months will change her life and thinking. She's a lovely young woman and I was blessed to be invited to have lunch with her and the grandchildren today. I think of how we take for granted the roof over our heads and the running water and that we have cars and jobs. We fuss over our own particular troubles, but I have to remember that there are countries where people have no food, where there are no bathrooms, and where children are often killed or kidnapped on their daily walk of maybe ten miles to fetch water for their families. Yet my daughter is healthy and happy, her husband is a dear, and the children are so very delightful. I am a mother and grandmother of really wonderful children and I am really blessed.

And I'm seeing a really special guy. I'm most turned on by how a man thinks and expresses himself and this guy is the most self aware and articulate person I've ever met. Plus he's easy on the eyes, makes it clear that doing things for me makes him very happy, and he seems to think I'm pretty special. He's giving and loving and just wants to be close to me but, because of past wounds, it's a struggle to allow myself to get close to a man like this, but the opportunity to know him and be challenged by what he shares with me is a blessing I wouldn't want to miss.

And I had the pleasure of meeting a new Wowette for dinner this week. She's beautiful and lovely and smart and down-to-earth and shared herself and her experiences with me like we'd been friends forever and I'm a changed person for that few hours of being with her. She's a lot like me in so many ways that it's amazing. I'm looking forward happily to getting to know her better. A new friend is a blessing that grows and grows.

So that's what's happening lately. What's the plan for the future? The Wow meeting this month is a get-together without a speaker and the ladies are being slow in RSVPing, which I don't understand. I won't beg or nag, and my policy is to let it happen as it will, but it's frustrating to make the effort and look forward to seeing the group gather and have them drag their feet in making a commitment. I don't understand it, but I know that whoever does show up will create a lovely and lively evening for me and bring joyful energy into my home. But I know that,no matter how few or how many ladies participate, I'm blessed to know these ladies and that they share their lives with me.

Next month, I'm planning another Guy Panel. We get a few cool guys to come to a Wow meeting which is usually all women and ask them questions about men. Like why do men do this or that and how do men think and what do they really want. I asked the guys in my Party Group to volunteer for the Panel and I got quite a few who responded. I thought it would be a learning experience for my ladies but one guy wrote that it would be the same for him. Listen to how cute he sounds: I think I would give up a body part to participate in your panel. It's not so much that I can speak for all the XYs out there, but I can speak from my experience. The most interesting factor would be hearing the questions. What is on the XX mind and what concerns they have. It's so much easier to just go to work and come home and watch TV since I have a natural inclination to be a hermit, but it's so rewarding and enriching to meet these new people and provide these experiences for my ladies that it's worth the effort. These are rich experiences for me and I am blessed in ways I never anticipate.

Geez, I could complain of my money woes and how expensive life is getting or that my body isn't what it was years ago or that I still have angst and anxiety sometimes or that my job is increasingly stressful or that I had one nasty time growing up or that my birth family doesn't get along, but I'd rather count my blessings, one by one, and revel in the pleasure and joy of knowing that life is what I make it, that I am one lucky person to have such kind and giving friends in my life, and that I am healthy and energetic and that I have a roof over my head and enough money to keep it there. Wow, I am one lucky woman, aren't I?