Saturday

Some days--with this mysterious connective tissue illness--are relatively pain free, like yesterday.  Other days, like today, I feel like I have the flu--aching all over and groaning when I get out of chairs.  After all these various tests, I should have a diagnosis by April 6th.

Otherwise, today was a great day.  Pam and I had lunch at Simi's for her belated birthday.  "This is what it feels like to be rich!" she said, standing at the buffet of Indian food.

This woman loves her Saag Paneer!

I talked to a woman this morning who works at the nursery--a woman whose health, car, and house are not in good shape.  She "gets nervous driving," so she travels to and from work on the bus.  At one point, I suggested I take her to lunch at Sol Luna and she can help me identify the plants I like there.  "Lunch?" she asked, incredulously.  "At a restaurant?"

When I told her that I have a ninety-year-old mother who loves her yard and flowers, she said, "Ninety? I wish I could live that long."

"We are rich, and I'm so grateful! " Pam said.  "We get to get in our cars and drive wherever we want, whenever we feel like it, and do whatever feeds our souls."  Freedom is  real prosperity.

When I talk to older women, as I did when I photographed the women in the book of Wise Women Over 80, one thing always stands out--many of these youthful older women have experienced griefs, illnesses and suffering, yet they say how "grateful" they are.  The oldest interview subject in her late 90s, a long time friend of Bonnie's, well-known yoga teacher,  recently widowed, always answers the question, "How are you?" with one word: "Grateful."