I'm not ready for a relationship yet -- but sometimes I feel sad because I think all the magic of romance is used up for me.

The relationship I was in for 15 years did not have any zing. I traded sexual excitement and fulfillment for kindness and a loving stability. One of my friends has said, "You chewed off parts of your body to have that relationship" (as an animal will chew off a leg to get out of a trap."

Now I am a middle-aged woman. And middle-aged men get their zing from younger women. And I just wonder if This Is All There Is.

No more zing, no more magic of romance ever again.