I dreamed last night about a friend who was having a midlife crisis. In my dream, all of her friends were assuring her that she was still beautiful, still feminine and still sexy. Why is getting older so often about how we will look when the bloom is gone? It isn't just women either. Remember the old song about the guy that got a divorce, a blonde and a new Porsch? Eternal youth is available now if you have the money, at least on the outside.

Looking backward to the seventies, I realize that my midlife reawakening was cataclysmic. It involved a new career and a new husband. I made a lot of mistakes but I also gained some invaluable insights that have made the last 29 years the happiest of my whole life.

My advice to those of you who are going through this, is that you get to know yourself and to learn what makes you happy. Discover that you aren't defined by what other people think but by what you are and what y ou do. Above all, reach out to other people. Good friends are the richest treasure of all.