I wish I could fall asleep whilst meditating jings. It would be an easy cure for my insomnia.

Aruna51 I really did identidy with your blog. At 72 I am happy to have a quietly lived life and have no wish to dash around joining many clubs, climbing Everest, wearing purple and doing other things to make people say 'ooh she's wonderful for her age'.

I'm pleased to be relatively invisible, especially to men in a sexual sense. What a relief!

I've always been an inner kind of person and I do feel content that I achieved a lot in my forties and fifties.

I have a question though. Do you think your contentment with a quiet life, on the one hand, is balanced out by your famous, interesting life on the other (two lives running in parallel)?

Do you think your contentment with a quiet life, on the one hand, is balanced out by your famous, interesting life on the other (two lives running in parallel)?

No. I really don't care for the public life. But I do enjoy writing, always did -- it goes with my introverted personality, I guess. I much prefer writing to talking. And I do have financial issues, as I mentioned before. I will have a very small pension in two years time and it would be wonderful to have a few successful books making money for me, so that's what I hope to do: make money from my hobby!

However, in this day and age it's very hard to get a book noticed because there are simply so many of them. So I do play the author game to a certain extent, which may mean book signings, talks etc.

I could drop that kind of life --- well like the proverbial hat! I would say there is more a dichotomy than a balance. But the private life is the real one. The public one is more of a duty. I don't enjoy public appearances at all. I am still basically that shy little girls who trembles whenever called upon to say something publicly! But learning to do it in spite of my dislike has been part of the journey. I just do it when it's called for and don't think about it. Meditation helps!

And really, I am not at ALL famous. Not in Europe at any rate. A little bit in Guyana but that is a tiny country and it's easy to make a name there. Big fish in a small pond and all that!

Aruna51, thank you for your advice on how to meditate. If I ever feel the need to have a go, I will approach the subject in a much more serious manner.

You are certainly getting your money's worth out of your blog. I think this is the first time any blog turned into a Q and A with the GNrs.

(You don't actually come across as being exactly quiet )

jinglbellsfrocks, I know your comment is sarcastic but I still hope that one day you'll take it up. It literally turned my life around! And a lovely Sunday to you.

As for being quiet: you should see me at lunchtime in the hospital canteen! I never say a word and everyone else is chatting 19 to the dozen! But I am a writer, I like to write, I love to write, and I love that writing is such a very QUIET occupation! Especially since no-one is forced to read what I've written.

Are you good at one to one chats? Just being inquisitive really.

Will you consider being a regular gransnet contributor?

Well, I completely get you Aruna51. Wishing you every success with your books.

Oh for flip's sake! Why do you hope I will take up meditation?! Totally

I wish you a happy Sunday too. And a quiet one.

@soontobe I'm good at one to one conversations with someone I feel close to. I'm not good at arguing! And I would love to be a regular gransnet contributor. I had never heard of this site before and loved it at first site!

@thank you ffinnochio

@jinglbellsfrocks, just teasing! But then again, why not!

Your blog resonated with me and I totally get you too Sharon. Enjoy the real adventure.

jingles you are so funny lol, but what you say is always very true

Good for her if she has it sussed, maybe we should read her book, we might learn something.

jingles you are so funny lol, but what you say is always very true

Good for her if she has it sussed, maybe we should read her book, we might learn something.

I don't like the thought of growing old gracefully.

At the moment I am doing all the physical challenges - knowing that I don't have that many years to continue running, walking 10 miles etc.

I hope to emulate a friend of a friend who was camping out on a mountain to see the sun rise at the age of 84yrs.

Once I get past that I can't see why it should be any different- I have always been a great reader and liked solitude.

Jenny Joseph's poem 'When I am old I shall wear purple' holds far more appeal for me.

I really do not understand what is so special about being old and why people keep going on about it. The only thing I am aware of is that the longer people have been around the more diverse we become.

On a family basis some Gn-ers, still have children at home, others the same age are Great Grandmothers. Some are glad to be beige, give up make-up, take life easier, others are choosing to be more active go off traveling. O

Others, and I am among them, have always had busy lives mixing work, family and personal interests and the only effect reaching my sixties had on me was that work stopped and I had a regular pension income so had more time to take on more outside interests and activities.

Apart from the work/pension element I am still leading life much as I did 20, 30 or possibly 40 years ago. I am not invisible and I have never had any reason to think anyone was ignoring me because of my age. I think we should all stop obsessing about our age and just lead the lives we choose to lead in the way we want to lead them.

Well said,Flickety.
My life is no different except that I have far more freedom to do as I want. I am not restricted by paid employment or children. It is all very exciting!
I don't feel any different and can't see me feeling old in the near future.

Leticia Precisely, my father live until he was 92. At that age he was still involved in running several community groups, living independently and leading the same life he had lived since retirement and before. Age didn't come into it.

My mother will be 86 in June. She's as sharp witted as ever but slower, much slower, physically. I'm slower than I was too and I'm not yet 60. Age most certainly does come into it.

It's nothing to be ashamed of though.

Age is just a number though and you can't predict how you are going to be.
I am making the most of it while I can.

Oh, me too, but my age is not irrelevant to what I do, what I want to do, or what I'm able to do, and I don't believe it is for most people. Other things being equal, age needn't stop you doing whatever, but quite often (more often than not I suspect) because of age 'other things' are not always equal because it's age, whatever age, be it ten or or thirty or fifty or seventy, etc, that makes 'other things' different.

Oh - it's not just a number! Believe me.

thatbags I read your post three times before I understood what you were saying and then decided I agreed with you.

You blinded me with science a bit there!