Wise Women 2012

• "I can still remember what it feels like to love with all my heart." Elva Azzara 93 years old
• "As we age, we have the chance to reinvent ourselves and to have new adventures. Arthritis took me away from painting. Now I use my artistic abilities to design clothes. As we age, our connection to our deeper womb powers increases and we are often blessed with new gifts of magic. Ingerborg Ten Haeff 78 years old
• "I don't need a mirror to see how I look. Long ago, I realized the inner self is visible if you present yourself truthfully and authentically. I'm comfortable with getting older. I have lived a good life." Geraldine Smith 70 years old
• "I keep telling my friends that sex keeps getting better. After dealing with all of life's trials and tribulations for so many years, you just realize that there must be a higher power. Once you realize this, you can let life unfold. You get to the point where you just say, 'I'm not going to worry anymore; I've done that long enough.'" Jeanie MacPherson, 72 years old
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• "I've realized that people are more unique than I ever thought. I used to presume others saw things like I did, but of course they often don't. To be wise is to have respect for each person's unique journey and integrety, and not expect them to be or think like you." Annette Covino, 74 years old
• "The greatest gift we can give to the world is creating a continuous, uninterrupted loving family structure." Aldona Laita
• "The most important thing is to try and enjoy life--because you never know when it will be gone. If you wake up in the morning and you have a choice between doing the laundry and taking a walk in the park, go for the walk. You'd hate to die and realize you had spent your last day doing the laundry!" Christine Lee, 67 years old
• "Let it go. If it's bothering you, let it go." Betsy Brown 69 years old
• "I still don't dye my hair. My advice is follow your conscience. I've had several lives. I'm not the same person I was at twenty, forty, or even sixty. Now I'm a role model for women in their seventies and eighties! When you're this old you can reconsider your whole life. You can relive your life and understand it with a pleasure and perception not available when you first experienced it. People are extremely nice to me now, because I am no longer a threat to them." Polly Kline 97 years old
• "The happiest people I know are not those who are the most beautiful, rich, or famous. The happiest people I see are simply those who stay cheerful and try to cheer up others while getting through their own bad stuff" Helen Gurley Brown, 79 years old
• "I think it's cool being older--I still get hit on. People are always telling me how beautiful I am now. It's like they are almost incredulous because the old stereotype is that we shouldn't get more beautiful with age. I have respect for the body and live in harmony with nature; that's where the beauty comes from." Marilyn Alex 70 years old
• "Being in opera is my life. I've played Madame Butterfly more times than almost anyone else alive, and the story continues to absorb me. Tragic, poignant love will always fascinate and touch people." Licia Albanese, 88 years old
• "I've always believed that whatever you are when you are young, as you age, you become more so." Evelyn Lauder
• "Many of us are living out the unlived lives of our mothers, because they were not abale to become the unique people they were born to be... Gloria Steinem, 67 years old.
• "People often stop me now and tell me I'm beautiful. I never had this happen when I was younger. So for me aging has, at least on the surface, made others more interested in me and who I am." Betty Silverstein