Surviving menopause
By Jena Griffiths | December 1, 2014
Sometimes we have a midlife crisis and we don’t realise we are having it. The world gets shaky under our feet or it feels like things are falling apart, and we are not sure if it is us or the world doing the shaking.
This is a bit like puberty all over again but without parents around to blame or rebel against. The danger is to turn all this emotion inwards to hate, blame or rebel against your own inner crone, or your still-locked-in-the-cellar inner genius.
For women, this is called “menopause” because that’s precisely what it feels like. Men-oh-pause : a period in your life when you are, quite honesty, not that much fun to be around, and don’t feel up to being sexy or attractive or a solid rock foundation for someone else’s empire, shack or establishment. The ground is shifting and we try to ignore it. A bit like in California or Japan where there is a tectonic shift under foot. One solid “terra firm” is sliding under another and what the future landscape will look like, or how long this is going to take, can only be wildly guessed at.
The real problem is, like Californians or the Japanese, we are mostly in denial that radical change is inevitable. We cross our fingers and hope not to die while re-building nuclear power stations or factories that could implode the world, all self excused away as how to pay for our children’s college education or how to keep ourselves warm and cosy in old age. While day by day, the ground shudders or trembles with occasional hot flushes to remind us of a new world wanting to be birthed.
We are our own midwives. And who knows what the future will look like.
Love who you are.
Perhaps, right now, you are the caterpillar dreaming of your butterfly self. Or the nameless, shapeless ooze “in process” during the cocoon phase where total meltdown is inevitable.
And, whether you are 28 or 98, give yourself space to shift, grow, change, re-dream, press pause, do-as-you-damn-well-please and then one day who-knows-when unfold your shaky delicate wings and soar. Breathing hope, and awe and inspiration into the hearts and lungs and wearied bodies of all of follow in your footsteps.
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Topics: Being in transition, Depression Cures, Don't know what you want, rollercoaster life, self esteem | No Comments »