Growth, new adventures, and sharing.

Those are my now 5-year-old twin grandchildren, waking up on their birthday. They have so much life ahead of them and parents who strive to make their lives rich and full. I contrast that to the ladies in my Wow group, ladies now in their 50s and
60s who have lived through joys and tragedies and now find themselves in a new time of their lives, a time of making new choices and being alone unexpectedly. I love Wow. I planned last night's Wow meeting as a get-to-know meeting. There have been quite a few new ladies joining the group and I wanted us to find out about each other, our talents, hobbies, business offerings, etc, so that we could network, make use of each other's skills. And continue to make new friends.

Very coincidentally, I received an email that morning from Michelle Niger, producer with "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet," asking if I knew of any women willing to share their stories about Female Midlife Crisis. So after our potluck dinner, we created a circle of chairs in my front room and I presented Michelle's request and gave each of the ladies a chance to share their stories.

One by one, the ladies told stories of long marriages, followed by death or divorce, and how they found themselves in their 40s and 50s, surprisingly single and being forced to create a new life for themselves. I was amazed at their stories of challenges and courage, of illness and healing, of shyness and self-confidence, of fear and growth. I'm going to summarize as many of their stories as I can.

One lady, with degrees in accounting, works for the IRS as an auditor. She raised two children, one of whom is disabled, and found herself divorced after 21 years of marriage. She read, writes, and teaches computer classes. Another was unemployed after her dentist employer retired, at the same time as her ailing mom was placed in hospice, so she was able to spend six months caring for her mom in her lasts months of life. Another, who admits that she is very shy and had to force herself to come to our first meeting, graduated from college at the age of 45 and moved to California from Minnesota by herself after her divorce after a 26 year marriage. Another took her company throught the Y2K conversion and found herself laid off after 27 years, suffered from fibromyalgia, and reconnected with a cousin at a barbeque and ended up being her marketing director and publishing her first book, a story of America's first ladies. Another took care of a very sick husband for many years and was laid off after 17 years on the job; she now is happily involved as a saleperson for a beauty company and delighted to be self-employed. Another dreamed of being a journalist but became a court reporter instead, which has proved to be a great source of support as she became a single mother to two now very grown and successful children. Another is a retired teacher who admits that her life has taken quite a different path since joining Wow. At her 1st meeting, we had a speaker who taught about healing through movement and dance and our Wow member signed up for her pole dancing class, became a participant in the speakers charity film for cancer survivors - she dances, takes tai chi and water aerobics, and has just made her first commercial for a major US company to be shown at the upcoming Olympics. One was diagnosed with cancer last year and, upon hearing the news from her doctor, asked "OK, what do we do now?" She is a new grandmother and attributes her positive attitude to yoga - she's one who went recently went through a long and painful divorce and can't find enough time to do all the things she's waited years to enjoy. Another lost her mom last week, sadly, and works two jobs and fills the rest of her time with charity work for abused children and visiting residents of the assisted living facility where her mom spent her last days. A new member met the lady who joined her at the meeting at Karaoke and formed a three-woman signing group, singing like the Andrew Sisters, Brenda Lee, and Patsy Kline - she also has taught ballroom dancing and is currently unemployed but looking for a new career. An original member recently became an aesthetician, received her hypnotherapy credentials, and successfully healed after double hip surgery.

There are so many more stories, and I could go on and on. Each lady only had three or four minutes to tell her story and I know there is so much more to know. For me, I created Wow three years ago after a bad break-up when my beautiful curly haired daughter urged me to spend more time with my women friends and I realized they had all married or moved away. I looked around at these amazingly beautiful and talented women, so full of life, and realized that a little effort had changed me dramatically, bringing into my life women who characterized their "midlife crisis" as "re-inventing" or "a new chapter" and, although they'd all love to be on the talk show and admit to having survived many difficulties and challenges, none of them would call it a crisis. I am inspired by each and every women, all of whom approach life willing to walk through any fear in order to live life fully. I'm so blessed to know them all.