Part 1.

Every day that I work with women and men for health or business/work reasons, I hear stories.  There are many common themes in these stories.

For thousands of years story-telling has been a time honoured way of passing on the knowledge in cultures around the world.  Here is a story for you about one woman’s experience of her menopausal journey.  This story is representative of a lot of different women with many aspects in common to them all.  I thank the women who have shared their stories of the menopausal transition with me.

This story is rather on the long side so is in three parts, the latter two parts will be on future blog posts.

OLIVIA’S ODYSSEY.

“  I’ve had ENOUGH!!!!  ENOUGH, ENOUGH ENOUGH!!!!”  screamed Olivia.

She did not care if anyone heard her – although if any of her loved ones had heard they would be surprised.  Olivia prided herself on her compassion, tolerance and tendency to find peaceful solutions.  It is not really a co-incidence that her name loosely transcribed means ‘one who is compassionate and seeks peace.’

For once Olivia was quite uncaring of those around her and what they heard or thought about her.  She was fed up with hearing other people’s problems, of trying to keep a peaceful home and workplace when it seemed she was the only one making the effort. 

Olivia had left the house in a burst of angry energy at 7 am.  This was very uncharacteristic behaviour for her.  Usually she was calmly making breakfast or doing some other household task at this time with her love partner and also planning her work activities as well as trying to give attention to the myriad of activities her young adult children and partner were involved in.  But today for some reason Olivia could not bear to have any more requests made of her.  Her ‘request’ box was full!

‘Why am I still running around after them all when they are all adults now?’ Olivia pondered as she stomped along the walking track.  ‘ After all, they don’t seem to be remotely interested in my activities. ‘

Olivia kicked a stone which was in her way on the gravel path.  Her frustration had been growing for months if not years.  She seemed to feel rather resentful and angry lately but did not know why when things were good as they had been for years.  Life had been reasonably kind to her in this regard. In fact her life was almost exactly as she had planned.  Olivia was an expert in her field of work and had for years honed her skills.  She was in demand in all corners of the globe for her solutions oriented high tech work and had very much enjoyed the journey which had helped her arrive where she was at this moment.

“If I enjoy my work, love my family and friends so much, know that my health is good – why do I still feel dissatisfied, grumpy, frumpy and ‘over’ everything.  Not to forget dead tired most days and yes, I also feel like I am going crazy sometimes – feeling high as a kite one minute and lower than ever the next.”

Olivia had to laugh at herself when she realised she was talking out loud to herself.  Maybe she was going crazy after-all!

When Olivia raised her head to check out where on the path she was, she noticed a dark looking form about 50 metres ahead of her, sitting in the middle of the path. 

‘How strange’ Olivia thought, ‘Usually there is no one around here early in the day’. 

Olivia continued on her way, but as she drew closer she realised that the ‘form’ was indeed an older woman sitting slap bang in the middle of the path, which narrowed at that point.  The only way around the woman at this part of the track was to climb up the small, steep rise on the left and go around.  This was not a very tempting option as the prickly blackberries were covering the rise.

When it was clear the woman was not going to move, Olivia asked politely and just a little impatiently

“Do you need some help?”

“I don’t but you sure do – I could hear your thoughts from 100 metres away.  Hot and cranky enough to scald a cat! ” replied the woman. 

Olivia was rather taken aback at this reply.  This was not what she had in mind for her early morning ‘blowing off steam’ walk.  In fact the woman was rather rude.  ‘How dare she judge me!’ thought Olivia.

“I don’t judge you, you do a good enough job of that yourself, why else do you think you are feeling grumpy at the moment?” said the woman.

Olivia was starting to feel rather unnerved.  It seemed the older woman could read her thoughts. 

“Of course I can read your thoughts.  I am your ‘Wise Woman’. I know everything about you.  And I love you, no matter what and want what is best for you in this lifetime” said the Wise Woman.  “If you look closely at me you may recognise yourself and many other  women  in me.  What do you see?…..humour me if you please, we have all the time in the world and no one else is here”.

By this time Olivia was REALLY starting to feel that she was at least a little crazy.  She looked to the right, the left, behind, in front, even up in the trees to see if there was anyone else around.  She did not know how to respond and thought

  ‘Well, I may as well humour the old dear, what have I got to lose?’

When Olivia looked closely at the Wise Woman she did indeed notice that there were some features of the woman which seemed familiar. In fact the Wise Woman’s ‘energy’ and directness as well as her compassionate eyes reminded Olivia of her maternal grandmother as well as many other older women who she had known.  

“Who are you? Do I know you? What are you doing here or am I just imagining you?” asked Olivia of the Wise Woman.

“The fact that you are talking out loud to me is a good sign – and the fact that I answer means this is not ONLY in your mind. I am your alter ego, your inner wisdom, your guidance, your WISE WOMAN.  I am the wisdom passed down through generations of women.  The wisdom which it is now time for you to access to assist you with the next part of your life journey….

No, you are not going crazy – well only as much as millions of women before you at least.  You may feel like that at times, but now is the time to understand that you have reached a time in your life when it is wise to pause, reflect, refrain, re-invent and move on – often in a very different way than in the past.

Come sit with me now and we can delve into your hearts desires and learn from the wisdom of the elders.”

Olivia surrendered herself to the moment.  She also realised that she was starting to feel a little more relaxed.  Maybe it was being outside in nature, maybe it was the effect of the Wise Woman or maybe it was just a co-incidence.  Perhaps it would be a good investment to stop a while and listen, learn and let go……………

 Copyright – Wendy Dumaresq. 2011.

PART 2 TO FOLLOW NEXT BLOG POST.   Please feel welcome to contribute your thoughts below on Olivia’s Odyssey or your own experiences.  Perhaps you may know a woman who may benefit from this story.

Strategies for living well with your women’s health journey are available in the book ‘Radiant Women – simple steps for better menstruation and menopause“.  Print book and e-book available at http://www.rad-pads.com .

In the next blog post, Olivia and her Wise Woman will continue their Odyssey together. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Radiant Women. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.