Here's a link to an article I wrote about writing at midlife:

http://www.examiner.com/x-9177-Christian-Writing-Examiner~y2009m5d25-Seniors-Picking-Up-Pen-or-Keyboard-at-Midlife

Hope you enjoy it.

Couldn't get it to do anything Dotsie, is it correct as posted?

http://www.examiner.com/x-9177-Christian-Writing-Examiner~y2009m5d25-Seniors-Picking-Up-Pen-or-Keyboard-at-Midlife

Yes, it's right. I just cut and apsted it.

I tried posting it again to see if the link will appear live.

I don't kow why it won't appear clickable. Sorry about that, but if you cut and paste it in your browser, it will work.

Yep, gotta copy and paste. Great article, Dotsie. I'm one of those that was told writing wasn't lucrative enough. So after secretarying for a zillion years, I picked it back up. It's like finding out your lost love has been there all along.

Amy, I recently met a woman who wanted to be a photographer but was told as a teen that she couldn't do it as a profession. SHe ahd an uncle whom she adored. He was a phtotgrapher and is the one who told her she couldn't/shouldn't do it.

She went to college, landed a job working for a corporation, never liked it, and after 20-plus years, decided to leave and become a photographer. She told her story with such emotion at a recent conference I attended. She is now a successful woman photographer with her own business.

Reminds me a bit of your story.

Dotsie, I read your article in the examiner. That's great encouragement for mid-life women!

Anne I agree with MOST of your statement, and I am sure if here, Dancer would back me up.

You absolutely, positively can't teach a person without adequate pitch or harmony to sing, one who couldn't carry a tune if their life depended on it. Thats a FACT!!!

Also someone with NO rythm and who can't keep count can NEVER learn to dance. I don't care if their money hired Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire when alive, they wouldn't have been any better off. Some people have what is called two left feet, and thats for real.

All you have to do is watch the try outs for AMERICAN IDOL or DANCING WITH THE STARS, and these people are really trying to learn, so as not to embarrass themselves on national TV.

I always told my boys they could be whatever they wanted to be and I would help them if need be... I was told by the woman that was at that time the most important woman in my life and in the town I lived in, my Grandmother. She was a nurse, midwife, a gourmet chef, sewed, knitted, crocheted and could grow anything, then use it in some wonderful way.

She always said to me: If ever anyone tells you no, or that you can't do something; charge in, and prove them wrong. Be the best, better than the best one before you.

I proved it again when starting WRITERS SERVICES, my own business at the age of 66, it having since then become extremely successful...

I listened to her throughout my life and did as she said, and it worked. I was usually the best at what I was doing. I had to be, my grandmother said so, and she was never wrong.

I posted a comment.
Congratulations!

You go girl. I love your spirit. Some people would have crawled in a ball and never sang again.

Chatty,
I love your reference to your grandmother. Glad she influenced
your life and you listened to hear. I think of my grandma often. She's with The Lord, now; but her spirit lives in my soul! I can sense you have the same type experience, going on.

IMO what our grandparents' generation possessed, was good ole fashioned common sense. Don't you wonder what happened to
common sense? Somebody must've hijacked it. Do you ever watch
Glen Beck? He's just written a book on common sense. Now that
ought to be a fun read, considering the source!

Glen Becks book COMMON SENSE is a good one even though his theatricks are less than common sense. He is a brilliant man however, go figure!