Well I glanced, as you do, at the bit where the fishes swim in opposite directions you know well what I am talking about. Now we all know it is the greatest load of codswallop , but we have to take a peek. Some day… just one day it might be right….

Horoscope for Monday, January 14, 2008 By Rick Levine

‘Your life could settle down enough now for you to get your personal responsibilities under control. Perhaps you’ve been remiss in meeting your obligations, but today you are driven by more practical concerns. Forget about the idle fantasies.

Direct action — not dreaming about it — will bring you face-to-face with the happiness you seek.’

“Direct action” I murmur thinking of all the chores for the day.

I put the computer to sleep and put away the keyboard. I stand up and turn around and what happens? I am face-to-face with >>>>>

Well for a split second I of course thought it was my mother. She follows and haunts me so much that I say “What are here for now?”

Relax she was not back from the dead, it was Me! Yes I was face-to-face with my reflection in a mirror. Not bad for a Monday morning I thought, at this distance the lines don’t really show and the hair is more pepper than salt. Turning the corner I see the lens cleaning cloth and remember to clean my glasses. Removing the glasses I discover how smudged and greasy they are, it is a wonder I can see anything through the lenses.

“Direct action, direct action” I hum to myself and decide to go purchase the extra ingredients needed to make a pot of soup. Going into the bedroom to get my coat, I am once more face-to-face with me! This time there are more lines and the front of my hair has gone very white. How can that happen in a couple of strides and a half a minute? Of course the light is different in the bedroom (and the glasses are now clean)! Well if that’s how I look, that’s how it is, I have no intention of taking to the bottle. There are far to many women my age out there walking around with dead straw on their heads.

I did make it to the shops and buy what I needed, but everywhere I went I was confronted with mirror walls or glass cases that reflected my face back at me. Why had I never noticed them before? Walking uphill with my bundle to my little castle I met an acquaintance who told me I was looking very well.

Continuing on my uphill journey I mulled over what the acquaintance had said. Yes, I was looking well and health wise so much better than this time five/six years ago. Back then I was racked with pain and unable to cross my living room without hanging on and I mean HANGING on to the furniture. I do have my bad days and various aches and pains but not the constant 24/7 pains in joints and muscles making it difficult to get out of bed, dress and raise my arms to brush my hair. I have a GP who really listens to me and the cocktail of medication finally suits me and works for and not against me.

I am normally a ‘glass half full’ kinds gal, but November and December were a real drag this time round. The corner has been turned and today we reach the halfway point in the longest most difficult month in the Calendar. Perhaps the prediction was correct for once, and I was able to come face-to-face with the realisation that the happiness was there all the time deep inside myself!

Sometimes we have to travel through a dark passage to appreciate the good bright times ahead.

Back in March 2002 Elly came home from Scotland to spend a weekend with me. Instead of drowning the Shamrock we spent the time in A&E at Antrim Hospital. I was ill and in extreme unexplained pain. On her return she gave notice and returned home to look after me. It was a very black time for both of us. After several months she had the chance of a good job in Dublin. Once again I pushed her out and changed the locks 😉

It was the best move she ever made, she found a career, love and a wonderful caring husband. Perhaps without my illness that might never have come to pass.