Women's Issues Midlife And Beyond
As I just mentioned last week, the ebbs and flows of hormones embody menopause. Almost daily there is a new mystery, emotion, or awareness about this midlife phase.  And just as my journey into puberty was most likely different than yours, the menopausal experience is also as individual as the women undergoing the changes. The debate between using hormone replacements– or… Read More
Letting go of expectations, permission, and cultural detritus can leave menopausal women struggling for an identity. Do they continue as before—shrouded in a persona that tends to no longer fit—or do they allow themselves to revisit and explore aspects of themselves considered too self-serving during the childbearing years? As Dr. Northrup (2003) explains, “Caring for others and pursuing unexplored personal… Read More
Last week my story entry ended with my confusion about entering a new love relationship in midlife. Even though I adored my soon-to-be husband, letting go of my hard won independence was daunting. During my single-motherhood years I tested my strength and voice as a woman, and now I would once again be sharing decisions. Would it feel like I… Read More
Do you remember the first time some high school kid at the grocery store asked if you wanted paper or plastic, Ma’am? I do, and I was a little shocked. Menopause is a bit like that too. It sneaks up on you. Suddenly the world views you differently. Unfortunately, that means it can also affect how we see ourselves.After many… Read More
Let’s see, where was I?  Oh yeah.  The reason I’m mentioning my history is because I had questions not only in my youth, but as I took a running jump towards menopause. The same wall of silence I ran into as a teenager was hitting me in early midlife. I always had irregular periods, but when I turned thirty-eight they… Read More
My mom, as I stated, was complex. She embodied innocence and wickedness in one package. Although Mom and Dad tried to hide it for many years, the undeniable fact that my oldest brother showed up six months after their wedding vows more than implied there was some canoodling before marriage. Not a socially welcomed outcome circa 1953. After the wedding,… Read More
Grandma was endlessly upset and intrigued with the topic of sex. She’d rant about how irresponsible my parents were in allowing us kids to see our farm animals mating. It was a sin! We shouldn’t be exposed to, to, that! In later years, after I was married, I remember a particular visit with Grandma at her house. She and I… Read More
So now that you know what I’d like to talk about, maybe it would be helpful to share a little of who I am and why I find menopause and the subject of female aging so inspiring. I grew up in a pretty classic Minnesota family. My dad was 100% Norwegian, charming, and incredibly hard working. He married a half… Read More
Hello beautiful women! I’m going to share with you, over a period of weeks, a talk I gave at Jodi Baglien’s Wellness Center. It is my hope you’ll connect with some, or all, of the content. If you do, please let me know. If you don’t, please let me know. This website exists to help women, and I need your… Read More
iSquint by Apple? As much as I enjoy the Apple products we own…computers, cell phones, iPad, Apple TV…I will not jump into the iWatch arena at this point. The reason? I have a hard enough time reading stuff on my iPhone! I can’t imagine trying to read font that fits into a space the size of a watch face. Yeah,… Read More
I stood in line at the checkout counter juggling a ten-pound box of Milk Bones and several other bags of dog treats. Yes, I should have grabbed a cart. No, I didn’t intend to buy an armful, but there I was. The man in front of me was cranky. He wanted to know if the child’s toy he was purchasing… Read More
A woman with sole A saucy young woman I know has a knack for asking questions that cause me to   pause and think. The cheeky woman’s name is Amanda. Amanda was my daughter’s college roommate, and quickly became a part of our extended family. I will credit/blame her for teaching my daughter how to dance with furniture when there… Read More
Yeah. Why not? I remember my undergrad anthropology class professor, Dr. Nancy Black, saying there are two kinds of women. She said it much better than this, but in a nutshell… –The first kind of woman feels she had to struggle every step of the way to become successful, so dang it, every other woman needs to do that too. This… Read More
Sometimes, now that I’m in midlife, I feel as though it takes a lot more effort to get my playful mojo going. It’s as though words like “matronly†and “sturdy†have run amok with my self-esteem. Nothing looks good on me, my hair is misbehaving—but not in a good way—and even my eyebrow sprouted a grey hair. Not both eyebrows…. Read More
Confession: I’ve never bought a lottery ticket.  Not even when the advertised amount is tantamount to a fantasy a la mode with another fantasy, I have refrained. It’s not that I think purchasing a chance at a dream is silly, foolish, or pure wishful thinking. I don’t even blink when the media ruefully tell us the odds are ridiculous, and… Read More
The pristine white of the silk scarf ached for color, and my Grumbacher Goldenedge 4626 paintbrush was ready to remedy the situation. Oh yeah. Creativity was my minion on this day. I envisioned a controlled pattern of yellows, greens, and oranges while dipping my brush into puddle after puddle of dye. I began to hum a little. My scarf was… Read More
Glorious, or snore-ious? Sometimes PBS programing dazzles, and sometimes it seems like a lecture that never ends. And don’t even get me started on those pledge drives! Last night, however, I was excited to see that Dr. Christiane Northrup was promoting her newest book, “Glorious Women Never Age†during, yes,  a pledge drive.  As much as I dislike the constant… Read More
“Ack! Where did that wrinkle come from? I’m starting to look like a Shar-Pei.†Or, “I feel like a blimp today! Just write Good Year across my huge butt and send me to the nearest football field. Blahhhhh.†And so the negative self-speak goes. And goes. And goes.  No matter how much I champion the beauty of women, other women,… Read More
Thrum, bump, bump. Thrum, bump, bump. My finger tapped along to an oldie tune playing on the radio as the patchy asphalt on I-35N kept my tires in rhythmic beat. It was a beautiful midweek summer day—the kind one thinks of while scraping an inch of ice off the windshield in January—blue sky, puffy grey smudged clouds, and a temperature… Read More
The scene: An introvert (me) walks into a room full of people celebrating. Some of the attendees are acquaintances, some are friends, but many are strangers. My husband, aka, Mr. Social Butterfly, is happy in this setting and makes the rounds with confidence and endless witty banter. I, on the other hand, look for one friendly face, or at least… Read More
Yep. I’m talking purging. Not the “I ate too much chocolate—again! —kind of purging, or the toilet hugging after-effects of drinking that third Pomegranate Cosmo on girl’s night out kind of purging. The purging to which I refer is about letting go of what holds us back. My friend and integrative healing therapy coach, Jeanne Daniels, (www.jeannedaniels.com), told me I… Read More
Beauty  I want to know if you can see beauty even when it’s not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence. –From The Invitation, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer Lately I’ve been drawn to writings on the gifts of imperfection, on the quirky things that make a woman dazzle in a cookie-cutter culture, and… Read More
Nose to ground; Booker was lost in his pursuit of all new animal pee-mails while I walked behind thinking about the day ahead. I’d already started two lists of “must do†items, with my mind working on a third. I was essentially a midlife zombie attached to a leash. Fortunately I snapped out of it. Rural delights trumped mental chatter… Read More
Irony. One definition says it is “something humorous based on contradiction,†and I would have to agree about the humorous part. Here’s an example from my life… The other day I purchased a magazine because it promised to give me a bajillion tips on how to organize my exasperatingly unorganized house. I browsed through the suggestions and out of the… Read More
In our backyard a tattered set of Tibetan Prayer Flags flutter like butterflies anxious to be free. Four years old, their colors have faded and the individual flags have become fringed and frail from the seasonal moods of Minnesota. It makes me sad to see their decay, and happy as well. I bought the set when I was in the… Read More
Clutter. Who defines it? As the New Year ushers in, many of this week’s talk shows offered tips on de-cluttering our lives. We’re encouraged to organize everything from our closets to our finances, lose weight, and toss or give-away “stuff†we no longer use or need. It’s a way of starting 2015 fresh. I find this somewhat perplexing. The past… Read More
Christmas music, as most of us know, gets airtime earlier and earlier. I believe I was shopping in Macy’s–before Halloween– and realized I was humming a Christmas tune. Then I realized the same tune was playing over the store’s speakers and had seeped into my mind. That kind of subliminal trickery is exactly what the marketers want. “Christmas is coming!… Read More
You’d think by now crashes, thumps, and other mystery sounds in our home would be a non-issue. But, no. I still jump, shrug, laugh, or sigh with each and every one. A clattering of near symphonic proportions happened again just this morning. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about our cat, Giese, and her uniquely un-feline clumsiness. She’s incredibly… Read More
“Liar!†my inner-critic shouts. “How dare you think you are qualified to be called a writer or artist.†Turning the music up all the way to eleven does little to drown the voice of negativity that keeps me from shining my light. A recent Facebook post stated that I was staring/grinning at a nametag given to me to wear at… Read More
“The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.† ― Mark Twain Yesterday, by simply listening, I made a friend cry. It certainly was not my objective, and yet the tears may start the ripple that washes away her years of self-doubt. I fervently hope that is the case. My friend is a marvelous woman. I never fail to… Read More
