Two things happened yesterday after I posted my transgressions against Eve. A very good friend who is aware of what I’ve been dealing with in regards to erratic menopausal symptoms and my mother’s diagnosis, asked if the post was therapeutic. I explained I felt better moments after posting. Then I accompanied my mother to her surgical appointment and this is what happened:
I did feel better. At least, right after posting. Then I spent the afternoon at the Center for Same Day Surgery across from Via Christi hospital, waiting for my mom. My dad and I sat together, he reading ‘The Sporting News” and I read a book on menopause. The waiting room was really cold, so I took a walk through the long halls. On the same floor of the surgery center were the offices for the American Cancer Society, the P.E.T. scan center, the breast surgery reconstruction center, etc. Women of all ages, shapes, and sizes were walking or shuffling past me, many accompanied by the steady arm of a friend or relative. Almost all of them had lost their hair. But what struck me is that most, if not all of them had this fierce determination about them. In their eyes. Their faces. The way they carried their tired bodies. And I began to feel ashamed for my tirade against Eve.
As I was standing against a wall, contemplating this, a little lady, possibly in her early 60’s, walked through the main doors. She was bald and wearing these sassy, dangling earrings. And she was wearing a hot pink t-shirt that read: “Yes, these are fake. Mine tried to kill me.” She smiled at me as she walked past. On the back side of the t-shirt was “Attitude is everything.”
And I began to wonder if Eve was supposed to fail the test. If the Big Guy’s plan all along was to ensure she failed so he could instill a great lesson within us. Maybe what Eve passed on to her female descendents, what she taught us, was how to endure. Possibly, God knew he could not forever protect us. That eventually we would succumb to the environment humankind would create for itself. And I realize there is a lot of contradiction in what I am writing, but I’m just trying to process it all. Because seeing those women yesterday made me grateful to be a woman. Does that make sense?
And the second thing was a book arrived in my mailbox just as I was heading to the hospital. It is Dr. Susan Love’s “Menopause and Hormone Book: Making Informed Choices.” I’ve learned more in the first 47 pages than I have in the 7 years I’ve been seeing a doctor for my perimenopause. I’m sure many a post will come from its pages. It’s fantastic.
So, for now I am giving Eve a break. Until I can work all of this out in my head and my heart. And if anyone out there has any words of wisdom they’d like to share, please feel free. Because remember ladies, we are all in this together.
Mermaid of the Plains 