Advice from the sagacious one.

I don't know about you, but I never listened to my mother. Now that I am an old mother myself, I realize she had a lot of wisdom to impart, like moderation. She was a real fan of it. I just never could get that one. If it was good, more had to be better. So I wound up all torn up with my addiction. Sigh. Personally, the best advice I could give anyone is not to give advice, not even when asked for it. I don't want to be responsible for anyone else's train wreck, no, not me. I will, however, tell someone how I handled a sticky situation. That I am happy to relate. For one thing, it reminds me that I have in the past, and can again, overcome obstacles that seemed insurmountable at the time. And it gives me bushels of gratitude to remember that. There is something to be said for living here for 60 years. My life has taken me to a lot of dark places, and out the other end of the tunnel into the light, as well. That journey changes a person. My friend Kathleen told me yesterday that I belong to the butterfly clan, as I am an air sign. In the Medicine cards, butterfly is the card of transformation. Well, duh. I have morphed so many times I can't even begin to count; knock-kneed kid to leggy teen to college coed to young wife to young divorcee to young career-woman to wife and mother to single-mother career-woman to wife and stepmother of three to late-in-life mother to divorced single-mother redux to recovering alcoholic to wild-woman artist to my present state of retired re-entry student. Lots of change there. Presently, I feel like I am still in pupa, all curled up in myself getting ready to spring open. Can't wait to see what emerges here. Could be really wondrous.