POSTPONED! Alas, Sarah is unwell with a bug so we’ll be sharing a new date for this Zoom in due course – it was due to take place on 4th September, but a fresh date will be set.

This is Sarah writing to say that I do hope you may be free to join make-up artist turned psychotherapist Lee Pycroft (above) and me next week in this Goldster Emotional Health Community discussion, sitting on a virtual sofa and talking about ways we can feel better.

I’m writing this from my garden office in West Dorset with Cassie our cockapoo asking to be let in (‘fraid the answer’s No as she will grab whatever’s tempting on the floor and bury it under a shrub…). In half an hour I’ll get lunch ready for my husband and me to munch while we do a daily quiz. Then a Zoom with some wonderful bright medical students to talk about their comms strategy before a wet walk with Cassie.

All sounds pretty normal - and it is. But getting here has been a rollercoaster over the decades: including growing up in a dysfunctional family with parents who ended up really disliking each other, my addiction to prescribed and illegal drugs and alcohol, losing two babies, as well as all the usual other heartbreaks, job gains and losses, bereavements (people and my beloved horses) and the rest… You all know what it’s like.

So… Lee (who is very wonderful) has asked me to tell her and everyone who logs on, on 4th September, how I got from someone who quite often was afraid to wake up in the mornings to this contented existence. Not to say there aren’t ‘grey days’, as one doctor described them recently – but I can more or less accept those now and know that they will change: my mood will lift, the sun will shine and jokes will be funny again.

Just a word about Goldster: I struggle with how to describe this really rather amazing online health and wellbeing community. It’s the over-50s club you want – and I’d argue – need to join as the years pass if you want to nurture your mind, body and spirit and be as happy, well and life-loving as you can. The founders call it the Goldster Method (or System) and there’s a big range of different classes from Pilates to cooking, creative writing and art to a now globally attended Book Club. The sub is very reasonable at £9.99 a month or an annual fee of £99.  

There’s also lots of Goldster Conversations Podcasts online and you can find one I did recently with former BBC journalist Humphrey Hawksley here.

Cross fingers you can join in next Wednesday but if not, we’ll let you know where you can find it online.

goldster.co.uk

* In the event of problems logging on, visit goldstar.co.uk – link here – and if you scroll down, you’ll see a button like the one below. After midday, that will take you straight to the Zoom.

Prize Draws