These are two books about dealing with midlife and the changes that come with it. One looks at the emotional side and the other primarily addresses the physical issues, but both do so with humor and common sense.
1. A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman by Joan AndersonAt the age of 50 Joan’s sons are married and have moved away from home, and she is beginning to wonder what to do next. One evening her husband comes home and announces that his job needs him to relocate far away, and simply assumes that she will once again pack up the family home and set it up again in this new location. She realizes that she has put down roots in this community and simply doesn’t want to move permanently again, and come to that, she doesn’t want to be with her husband either. Despite his puzzlement, she opts to spend time in alone in the family cottage on Cape Cod while they both work out what to do next. While at the Cape she begins to unravel what has happened to her, and how it was she got so lost while having a busy public life. I found it helpful to read about the process of someone else’s midlife quest, and admire the way she dealt with the events that challenged and motivated her during her time alone. I hate spoilers in book reviews, so recommend that you read it for yourself and see if her story resonates with you – and what happened next! |
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2. Ripe: The Truth About Growing Older And The Beauty Of Getting On With Your Life by Janet Champ and Charlotte MooreThis conversational book discusses the physical changes come with peri-menopause. The two writers make it seem like a conversation between friends over coffee, and you will find ’sticky notes’ with bits of advice slipped in along the way. The book explains that peri-menopause begins as early as the mid-thirties, and its effects are responsible for many of the more unnerving changes in memory, focus, and abrupt mood swings. Instead of the often negative tone of this being the beginning of the end of your reproductive life, the idea is that you are becoming ready to do all the things you want to do and have put on hold while family obligations have taken precedence. It is reassuring to see the effects biology is having on you, and am convinced these chemical changes play a huge role in the overwhelming feeling of disorientation and wondering who you have suddenly become. Check it out for yourself – or a parent, partner or sister who you think could be helped by it! |
Go for it ! Get out there and do something you love !
Use the internet. Here is a site I found.
http://www.bnbfinder.com/positionsAvailable.php
Most B&B are seasonal and offer housing, so you will get a chance to see if you like it. Wi
Hi, Lisa: I will most certainly share my story of a billboard when I do it, LOL, LOL....After 36 years of abusive marriage, a childhood of abuse, and a church who "trashed" me, I am more than ready for a healthy relationship.
I wrote about m
The pain certainly didn't feel good to me. Understanding why we are the way we are is a good thing. When I was 12 I got food poisioning..Ecoli..my Dad had planned a fishing trip for months..my Mom told him I was too sick to go..he said she has ruined
I hope you like the results you get. I am still using it since this original post from a couple of months ago. I am quite pleased. I have tried & discarded enough cosmetics to stock a small store. LOL
I read “A Year By The Sea” and loved it! I take it out from time to time and read it all over again It teaches us that there is nothing we can’t do, that age is only a number, that there are depths to ourselves, even at this age, that we have not even begun to uncover. If I had to pick one word to describe it, it would be “empowering.”
“A Year By the Sea” is one of my all time favorites. I, too, reread it from time to time and each time am exhilarated and moved.
It really is a great book, isn’t it?
I loved The Year by the Sea. I read it after my husband and I separated five years ago and I found such comfort in it. It also gave me great hope. I had been with my husband since I was 19 years old so leaving him was quite a rattling event in my life. I also was heartened by the fact that Joan and her husband found their back to each other. It didn’t happen in my case, but it is always nice when peope can salvage a long term relationship and redefine it.
I definitely will check into your other recommendation.