Menopausal Mother Meets Mother Nature

Tuesday 21st May, 2019

Menopause seems to be a hot topic at the moment and boy did I have a menopausal moment last night! A hugely frustrating (yet ultimately trivial) thing sent me into a stratospheric rage with expletives pouring out of my mouth like there was no tomorrow (apologies to my neighbours); my anger, my tiredness, my hormonal imbalance left me bulging-eyed and screaming and sobbing to the point that I actually thought I’d give myself a brain bleed - if not a sore throat. My family looked on at me in utter disbelief slamming my fists on the floor and dribbling; the terrified dog hid upstairs and refused to come down. This is not good. More amusingly, I had gone to a yoga class that evening and we'd done forward bends which induce a quiet mind. The teacher bade us farewell with the words 'have a peaceful evening'. Yep, well, that didn’t quite work out! If only she could have seen me two hours later she'd have given up teaching yoga forever...

So today, wrist hurting, I sloped reluctantly off to the hygienist to get the usual tut-tutting about 'bucal pockets' and 'bone loss' and mesial, labial, distal this that and the other. All I know is that I spend my life cleaning my teeth with an expensive electric toothbrush and shoving annoying little brushes of all shapes and sizes into every space possible, and washing everything out with vile tasting Corsodyl and still my gums bleed (another menopausal symptom I believe). I used to go into the dentist with a jolly demeanour but I've given that up these days. It's all gloom and doom however hard I try. Aging, pah! Mug's game.

Hygienist followed by supermarket shop followed by car wash = certain levels of gloom. I was starting to regret turing down husband's offer of 'a quick lunch' in Manchester. And I still hadn't walked the poor long-suffering dog. Guilt, on top of gloom, is not good either. So when I got home I resisted the temptation to make lunch and sleep it off in the sun and instead donned my trainers and headed down the lane towards the reservoir, to then do a big loop back up the hillside to home. I set off with a heavy heart in the certain knowledge that at some point I would have to be doing battle with steep gradients. Arthritic feet do not make this task any more pleasurable. Oh the joys...

But what joys, indeed, awaited me. Once the mud under the bridge and the field of excitable cows were safely negotiated it was plain sailing: by the time I'd reached the first empty expanse of lush green field, edged by white-blossomed hawthorns and vistas of exceptional beauty on this gloriously sunlit late Spring day, I was already feeling a hundred times brighter and more optimistic. Nature was working her magic. The soul was being soothed and all was quickly becoming right with my world.

Here is a taste of what I saw, smelt, heard and appreciated:-





























And so we reached the garden gate. Refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to re-start the day. If ever there is a lesson to be had in the therapeutic powers of Mother Nature, then this is it.


Comments

I am very fortunate, I went through the menopause with virtually no kerfuffel but you have my deep sympathies. As for going to the dentist - I'm convinced the whole lot of 'em are more interested in future business than the health of our mouths. After all, if they told us our teeth and gums were in great shape they'd not be able to get much more money out of us?

Your walk looks rather lovely, and very restorative. x

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