Within 12 days, I will celebrate an important anniversary. On the 19-April-06, I joined GA.

I wrote my first blog on 26-June-06. Many followed, telling the story of my life, my experiences, good or bad, showing how I learned to become stronger, more patient, and sometimes trying to bring to others the best advices I could from an adventurous life.

Five years later, many former members are gone and many new members arrived.

I'm like some journalists or writers who combine their best articles or reviews, published daily, in a collection, illustrating the passage of time. Perhaps some members of today, who didnt read my first blogs, now deleted, could be interested to stroll through the past, to discover the steps of my journey through the last 82 years ?

Today, I’m living with my wife in a small flat on the 6th floor of an old building in the middle of Geneva, with a large terrace, not far from my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. My eldest son died 3 years ago (heart attack), the second one work with me, my daughter died 7 years ago from AIDS after 20 years of successful fighting against the “plague” and my youngest son lives happily since years with his partner.

The following sentences are summarized extracts from my old blogs for new members to know me better and to understand why some people call me a "wise man". I'm definitely not better than anyone else, just older, taking advantage of my experience and enjoying to share it.

My experiences of life and death

It was July 1943.I was 14 years old.I was camping with another boy same age on a beach at the lake of Geneva.We went to a "Midnight bath", skinny-dipping in the dark water. The sky was also dark, no moon and no lights on both side of the lake (it was war time).I swam far away from the border, alone and suddenly I was lost, didnt know how to return to the border and was panic-stricken.I saw me drowned until I heard my friend calling from the border.I remember the the coldness of the water and, for the first time, the fear of dying.

The second time was much more serious. It was December 1969. I was 40 years old. I was working in Paris. My father was in a deep depression in a psychiatric hospital and died suddenly, alone, in one night.I came back as quickly as I could and was confronted with his body.It was my first real meeting with the death and I stayed a long time, meditating where we come from and where we go.

The third time was even much more serious. It was April 1996. I was 67 years old. As I went to my doc for my annual checkup, the result was as bad as possible : prostate cancer.The solution was either radiotherapy or surgery. I chose surgery but I had to wait till August for the operation. It was the first time that I could really think about my life and my death. At last, we have always the choice and we have the control of our destiny, to decide the Yes or No of our future. It was an important lesson, important enough to share it.

The forth time, it was April 2004. At my annual Spring checkup, I got bad news.My main heart artery was half blocked and I could have a sudden heart attack without notice.Once again a time of checking all the possibilities the surgeon could offer, a time of meditating about the decision to be taken. 3 weeks later, I was in the hospital again, to undergo an interesting operation called "angioplasty", staying awake and following the work of the surgeons on an internal TV-screen.Good humour and an optimistic attitude helped a lot. Again a good lesson for me.

The fifth time, it was October same year. Cancer is a sleeping plague. My operation of April 96 wasnt entirely a success.Fortunately it was early enough for a radiotherapy, but with a success quote of just 50 %. The prognose wasnt vey good and I had once more to think about my future..End March 2005, the tumor was gone.It was my destiny to "go on", enjoy and make the most of my chances.

Today, the lesson I want to share, as I allready wrote in my other last blogs about life and death, is to never give up. There is no problem without solution. It's your life, the solution is always in your hands.