Mid-Life Crisis and Women

Do you know that women go through a mid-life crisis the same as men do? The woman of the 50's stayed at home, raised the kids and made oatmeal cookies, and dusted and ironed before preparing a meal for the bread-winners return from work. Today we do all of those things plus we compete in a male dominated business world, die early of heart attacks, have stress diabetes, and high blood pressure and we suffer personal crisis - trying to find ourselves in a mixed gender world which sends us mixed messages as to who it expects us to be and what it expects us to do.

Do you know a mid-life crisis is the most scary thing to go through? When you are born you are surrounded by friends and support, when you die - they rally again to sing your praises, deserved or not deserved, but when you go though a mid-life crisis - believe me, that you go through alone.

You say to yourself, "this cannot be happening to me, its a figment of my imagination' - but it's not, is it? It is as real as life and death. As sunrise and sunset - and if you are a women, nobody but nobody - understands. Not your husband, not your friends, not your family.

Friends say things like, "why bother to loose weight, you will never look like you looked twenty years ago', or 'You are very brave styling your hair like that".

Your husband says, as you desperately turn to him for real passionate love making - 'the kitchen is a mess, and we still have to pack the meat in the deep freeze". At this point I know exactly 'who' I would like to pack in the deep freeze and it isn't the sheep.

I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I wanted to feel 'special' just once again. Two men wanted me to sleep with them - %%$$#@ sex is boring enough in the deep freeze, why on earth would I want to sleep with anyone else. Men sense a 'crisis' like a dog smells a bitch on heat - why do all men think sex is the answer.

I wanted that warm romantic feeling again, walk holding hands, being appreciated for who I had become, for what I had achieved, not for who I was - that's a history lesson. I wanted to feel what it is like to kiss again just for the sake of connecting.

I wished I was fifty, so my mid-life crises could be over. I wished I could pack my bags and start again - but that was not the answer either. I read a bumper sticker it said, "It's a crisis I'm having!"

Looking back - I see now it was a learning curve and I enjoy reaching out to women at that point in their lives to say 'it's ok', just keep looking up. You learn to accept yourself for who you are, you learn to enjoy the love and the romance when it comes, and you learn to make peace, when it does not.

So what do I do now, 17 years later - well I've learned to find inner peace, I have learned how to find and meet new challenges to keep my life interesting and growing, how to be satisfied with what I've got and what I can still achieve.
And honestly with time, just between you and me - I have even learned how to thaw things in the deep freeze.
LOL pass the diet coke, I need to go gym.