Thanks all! First of all for sharing your own intimacies. The trust implicit in sharing is gratifying. Your comments made me smile.
I do volunteer and teach as my profession so I am surrounded by moments of change and am grateful for many things each day including pain free health. One of the groups I work and hang out with are parolympic athletes and that fits my own sports interest. I would like to say that while we should be grateful to have easy mobility, they do not see their lives as that different than easy mobility people's lives. They frequently feel sorry for ME, since they see themselves surrounded by family and friends and see me as lonely They have very full and similar lives, to those of us who move on two legs with good vision and hearing. It is gratifying to volunteer. If I were a faster athlete I would love to be a guide-athlete in triathlon, but alas, both the vision and hearing impaired athletes I know are WAY too fast for me.

I am working on accepting loneliness and just living with it. I really love TE's forum. Who would have thought that a virtual community could be so trusting, loving, and warm. Thanks.