I was intrigued by Janice's post, "confessions of an email junkie". I have email at a couple of places and just lately it has been mostly forwards. Now some of these are wise, some are interesting, some are pretty. Some I read and delete, some I store for later and some I forward on.

What is worrying me about a lot of these is the threat on the bottom: "Forward this to seven people in seven seconds or you will get seven years bad luck". Are they kidding me? You would forward something to a friend so they can be cursed and not blessed? What kind of friend forwards this kind of threatening email on? It is like the old chain letters that people forwarded on under threat of fire and famine. Lets break the chain and wish people only good luck please!

Anyway it is eight years post stroke so Ray and I have had our seven plus a bonus year, time for our good luck to come back and bless us with a life of abundance and prosperity, come on, we've earned it! Come to think of it most of you deserve a break too. We could all use some respite from worries, be they financial, physical, mental and relational so I am wishing all the people that read this:

May Good Luck, Good Health, Wealth and Wisdom be yours from today onwards.

We have had a week of catching up with old friends, on Monday we caught up with some old neighbours who now have a holiday cottage close by. We usually see them a little through summer so it is nice to know they will be in our vicinity from time to time and we can catch up on family news etc. We don't have that wide a circle of friends any more so it is nice when this couple re-appears.

This afternoon another old friend came for a visit. He is an old friend of Ray's from his single life. His family featured in our life for a long time but I guess child raising etc broke the friendship for a while so it is nice when he appears on the scene again. Ray likes his company so it is a rare treat to hear Ray talking about old times in response to his friend's comments.

I went to a women's gathering this morning and caught up with some women from my life who I mostly see only at these events. We sit and chat and enjoy each others company about four times a year. Some of them I also see in our shopping centre or somewhere else on our rounds ( two are the wives of men in our Lions Club) so they are not friends really just pleasant acquaintances. And sometimes acquaintances, given time, can become friends, as all friendships have to start somewhere.

I am accepting I think now that I will never get back the years the stroke has "stolen" from us. There are no miracle cures, no sudden reversal of conditions. Life for Ray and me is at an ever slower pace. Ray had an assessment by a social worker who calls in on an annual basis as part of some of the respite I receive and she remarked that Ray's condition has changed a lot since she saw him last. Out of his hearing she asked how much longer I hoped to go on caring for him at home and I said hopefully for at least another couple of years. She patted my hand and said : "I hope you are able to too." and I think she was sincere in that.