Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Funny Thing...

As I navigate this treacherous and winding road of Life, I find myself in an odd place.  It's somewhat murky, sometimes sunny, and just a titch scary at times.

I'm talking about Post-Menopausal Adulthood.

Unlike previous generations, or so it seems to me, there are more of us living this life who still have youngish children at home.  I have two teenagers, one of them a freshman at university, and trying to keep up with them is equal parts exhilarating and exhausting.  Last year, when they were both in high school, they were both in marching and concert bands, and my daughter was in choir as well as sundry honor societies.  Not only that, she was in the top performing bands and choirs, so her schedule was twice as packed as my son's.  Additionally, he was still studying martial arts at the time, so our family spent many, many nights going in opposite directions.  Family dinners were few and far between.

A few months ago, after the umpteenth time visiting my family practitioner with random aches, pains, and myriad weird symptoms over the course of 12 months, my physician looked at me and posed an interesting question.  "Do you think you might be depressed?"

Uh..................hmmmmmmm.............maybe?

"Do you live with an unusual amount of stress?" she continued.

My response was to break out into cynical laughter.  "Well, I have two teenagers...." I responded with an evil grin on my face.

The resulting action from this exchange was that I was put on a mild antidepressant, and you know what?

I now laugh from happiness rather than cynicism.
I'm not crying seemingly every other minute.
I can find joy in my life.
And I have started singing again, auditioning for and earning a part in a community, semi-professional chorale.

Wow.  What a difference.  I didn't even know I was living under a cloud until someone pointed it out to me.

Sometimes, we all need a little help.

Later daze...