Thistle-- When you put yourself out there the way you are, you're not only helping yourself to stretch and grow; you're also helping the rest of us by being an example.

Dotsie-- You're right about Jane Work, the woman you reference. In her own words, she told me exactly what you imagined--that until midlife, she really didn't have much time to consider who she was and to pay attention to her inner voice. Her life revolved around her husband's and children's needs and wants. I found it fascinating that as soon as her husband died and she enrolled at Case Western University, she went from being a self-described conservative housewife to a liberal feminist. She's a hoot. Now 87, she's as fiery as ever. This morning, I spoke with her son. He leans as far to the right as his mom leans to the left. (Or at least, this is the impression I get.) But despite their political and religious differences, they're each other's biggest fans.

I said previously that I didn't feel I had the mental space to write until my kids left home. Part of this is that I was not only working and raising kids, but I was volunteering in the community as well. As a matter of fact, when I left teaching to pursue my writing passion, one of my biggest fears was whether I could emotionally handle not being on some kind of schedule. It seemed like I'd been booked since I started nursery school at age four. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. If I wasn't working or volunteering, I was chauffeuring kids around. But I gradually came to understand the danger in being busy all the time. So despite my trepidation, I was ready to take a journey to myself and exhilarated by the opportunity to design my days however I wanted. It's been an on-going discovery process.

The bottom line: Like you, Dotsie, I'm obviously psyched about women coming into their own in midlife. And there's more and more of us doing it.