Facing Menopause

Upon entering the twilight zone of menopause Newbies are shocked by what they feel which quickly drags them into despair as they're bombarded by the changes. (I'm not sure if I'm a Newbie or just getting the shock off me) At some point they must address this new thing...new phase...this reality of their mounting age.

While menopause is not my choice, what I do with it, is.
I could,
talk about it...
blame everything bad that happens on it....
run from it...
ignore it...

be angry about it...

face it...

study it...

I'm bumbling through online looking for sources that will show me Menopause's face. I must be ready to meet her. Is she an old lady? Sometimes I think she lurks in the shadow of my mirror. In a vague sort of way, I feel like I've met her already, many years ago when I was a teen. Oh where can I find resources that will direct me and prepare me and my family. The ladies that precede me simply instruct me to just hang on....

Wondering if there's good life after menopause for me....

When I get Old

 

         How old can you go?

Nobody can answer that!

From the perspective of one approaching that road faster than I really know it!

 

If you're between 18-25 years old you probably don't think of getting old; I didn't.  I was too busy with my young bad self! Back then...Way back then.... I was thinking of school, friends, boyfriend...commitments.  Getting old wasn't an option, I was trying to get older and wiser.

Then when I entered the 30 tier....well now I was thinking that maybe I could get old some day; especially when the doctor treated me with extra special care since I was an "older" pregnant lady! that was a reality check!

Now I'm a grandmother, at church I've been considered one of the older ladies for a while now.  Nothing really prepares us for the "old age" reality.

My father used to say when he was in his 50s "I never want to get old" But with in me I was thinking "What? you're already old!"  The end of last year he turned 89 yrs. old and even though the "old" barometer has climbed higher as I've gotten older I'm beginning to "judge" old by other means besides a number.  He was in his late 60s when he married again after my mother died, I guess he wasn't too old for that.  He worked until he was in his mid 70s still not too old. He was still driving in his early 80s; at this point he was just wiser. Today, at the tail end of his 80s he doesn't work, he doesn't do much, he needs a walker...and little by little he is getting old now....

When you ask Dad "how are you? his response is usually "another day older"
Getting old for him has not been a picnic! nor has it been gracious.

I am definitely wondering what getting old will be like for me.....and I also wonder what "old" will mean? then