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Two nights ago I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and couldn't figure out where I was. In the near-dark, everything looked different. Yikes.

Then I realized that in my sleep I had thrashed and turned and rotated until I'd done a 180 and ended up with my head at the foot of the bed. That was a first.

The next day I wondered if I had unwittingly enacted a metaphor for my life over the past two years: unfamiliar, disorienting, upside-down.

Nothing for it but to sit up, find the pillow, and put my head where it belongs. It worked that night, and it's been working -- not always as quickly as I'd like -- in life.

When the world shifts around us, we can panic and hide and scream. I've done my share of that, lord knows. Somehow, the seed of strength inside me has prevailed and kept me going. Good people have stretched out their hands to help. They have prayed and kept in touch. Others have seen in me a professional value I had begun to doubt. Since last September I've had the job to prove it.

One is never too old to learn. Here are a few things I know now.

• When someone tells you "it's not personal," it probably is.

• When someone says, "Oh, you're so lucky," pretend to agree even though you want to say, "Actually, I've earned this."

• Believe in yourself but be willing, even eager, to change and grow at any age. Channel Yoda and repeat to yourself, "Much to learn, I have."

• Wherever you go in life, when you find the good people, hold them close.

• When you come across a meany or a bully, don't give that person power over your spirit. Put on a Zen face and breathe. Hang out with the good people (see above). Another person's pathology need not become your neurosis.

• Practicing a faith is its own reward. I miss that.

• Everyone's An Expert, Part I: On the best way to train and rehabilitate rescue dogs. Can't we all just get along and save these poor animals? (Related: Beware fanatics of any sort.)

• Everyone's An Expert, Part II: On whether to put one space or two between sentences. Listen up: I trained to be that expert! I was hired to be that expert! (Breathe.)

• Pick your battles. Compromise. Make your case. Keep it strategic. Show what works best. Earn trust. Do your best. Sometimes you really do need to drink a tiny drop of the Kool-Ade to make it work. I promise: it won't kill you. Nor need it make you a sellout.

• Everywhere you go in life, and I mean everywhere, you will meet a Star Wars fan.

• A commuter marriage can be, if not a good thing, at least an OK thing. It can work. You can come to cherish your alone time. Sometimes you even think, Uh-oh. I'm getting to used to living without him. And then he walks in the door on a Friday night and you feel that ahhhh, that warm relief, that clicking together of the puzzle pieces.

• There are few things in life as uplifting as a clean CT scan, ultrasound or blood test.

• Our grandparents weren't kidding when they talked about their aches and pains.

• Laughter really is the best medicine.

• The time in life to accumulate more stuff is past. Drive right by the yard sale. Get the heck off of Etsy and eBay. Shopping is a tough habit to break, but your children will thank you someday. (Note: In my case, this is a work in progress. Sigh!)

• I've reached the age when the first thing I read in the newspaper (yes, I said newspaper, the one on real paper, dammit) is the obituaries. Not just those of people I know. Any obituary. I like imagining the different lives people have lived. My heart feels glad reading the praise and prayers of their survivors and knowing that even the quietest life matters to someone. Because love is stronger than death.

• I've missed blogging.