Dame Droopy

My day started with someone calling me sir and it made me a little sad—sad because it’s not the first time I’ve been mistaken for a man. Could have been the ball cap I was wearing, maybe the readers at the end of my large nose, my disappearing lips or the fact I have one and half eyebrows, uneven skin tone and a couple of long white whiskers protruding defiantly from my chinny-chin-chin. Breathe. 

Rolling with the punches, I pretended not to hear, it was really okay, and then I took a selfie during a texting conversation with my daughter and I saw it. I did kinda look like a dude. Menopause has stolen every ounce of femininity I once possessed, not that I’ve lifted a finger to try and retrieve it. I don’t care. I feel better than ever! I am resigned to white hair, dry skin, deflated boobs and zero collagen—I’m literally droopy the hound. I refer you to the picture if you’re thinking, huh?

I still have nice feet though, focusing on the good y’all. Maybe I’ll join FeetFinders before those go too. Hey, they’ll never know those gorgeous feet belong to menopausal man-me. Ha! 

Be well. 

  

Nine

 

Pause

Birds on a wire comfort me. Somehow, even they know when it’s time for a moment of rest. Do they speak to one another, or do they enjoy the silence and the sunlight warming their wings? Do they see the giant Red Shouldered Hawk perched high atop an electrical tower just across the easement? Majestically he surveys his territory and when he takes flight it is breathtaking. 

An unseen songbird very close by sings a heavenly aria to which no music can compare. Is her melodious poetry happy or sad? Is she saying goodbye to summer? Is she singing a love song to her beloved? What kind of bird she is, I will never know, yet I express my gratitude to the Universe for granting me audience with her—my whole existence simplified in the moment. 

Take time, daily, to appreciate what you love most in this world. Discard your worry and your stress for a little while. Press pause. Simplify your life by existing in the eternal moment of now, and see the beauty all around you. 

I hope you all are well.  

Proud of this One!

Recently, I was 3/4 of the way through a post on Instagram and it vaporized into the ether. It was a good post, too—maybe one of my best and it was just gone. It physically hurt to lose that one, really. But, it got me thinking about how much of my works are solely online, and not to put to fine a point on it but—all of them are, all of them—hundreds. 

For years I kept a journal, until my handwriting began looking like chicken scratch, so the thought of transcribing almost fourteen years worth of material made my hands ache. Times being what they are and the fact that the internet could crash at any given moment, I did what any good writer would do—I produced a book. 

Musings of a Madwoman: A Sane Way to Discard the Insane Brain is my newest nonfiction release. It is all of my Entanglement blog posts, plus a few extras that have never been published—timeless introspective for a new audience. It’s amazing to see how far I’ve come, how my writing has evolved and matured. I am ever grounded in the present moment, but it’s exciting to believe that my journey will continue to get better with time and I will continue to write about it, for me and for you readers, whoever and wherever you are out there. I am grateful. 

Be well.