Back Again

The New Year is here! And it’s not only a new year, it’s a new decade. That’s reason enough to begin by cleaning out the cobwebs and getting a fresh start on things--- best foot forward and all that! I’ve set out some intentions for the year which include the usual line up of better eating, exercise, and doing the dishes before it becomes an official Olympic event. These few days into the year I’m one for three. It’s a start. As a dear friend says, “Good things are going to happen!” and I believe that to be true.

One of the delights about a new year is a new calendar. They’re all about art and design and, ooh, do I love good graphic design. The combination of words and images on a page, the use of font and layout to best present the idea, these things make my heart sing a glad song for graphic design! So it is with much pleasure that I peruse the plethora of paper offerings each year.

The search for new calendars starts in late September which sounds early but it does take some time to find them. For each type of calendar - the weekly calendar for me and for work, the desk calendar for both home and work, and an additional monthly one for home – there are particular requirements, the most important of which is that rare combination of function and aesthetics. For the upcoming journey I’ve some delightful art to accompany me. For my desk at work there’s the little letter pressed calendar; for my desk at home it’s a beautiful silk-screen with wonderful graphics of my sister’s sports team. And then there’s the one featuring British rail travel posters that reminds me of my friends in London. So much art; so much beauty! What better way to mark the months of the year?!

The one calendar I buy that’s neither artful nor beautiful is the Franklin Covey weekly work calendar. (I know, I know. It’s like a cult.) My first job to require such a detailed calendar was with a company that drank that particular Kool-Aid. Without delay after being hired, lest I figure out how to organize my own thoughts, I was sent to class to learn the intricacies of how to use The Program. The class was called something dramatic like MasterPlan Goal-Focused Life Management. I don’t remember much about the doctrine except that there’s a language of arrows and check marks that help track of what goals are accomplished (checks) and what still needs doing (arrows). Though I don’t make full use of The System I’ve just stayed with it. I mean, I’ve already got the binder; I just need the new calendar pages…

Just as I’ve stayed with Franklin Covey there’s something that’s staying with me (no matter how often I think I'm rid of it) and that’s the single, wiry hair on my back. Yes, that’s right; I have back hair. Welcome to my world! Technically, it’s more of a shoulder hair but really that’s no more appealing than referring to it as a back hair. What ever name is bestowed upon it, it has returned with the New Year. On a body covered with thin, nearly invisible hairs (at least that’s what I tell myself in the summer when I haven’t shaved my legs…) this hair is thick and dark. Because of its ability to appear overnight and to immediately be about a half inch long I’m constantly on the look out for it. Rest assured, as soon as it is spotted it’s tweezed.

I didn’t used to have unwanted back hair. (Well, there’s the start to an infomercial if I’ve ever heard one!) It showed up quite unannounced not long after I became abruptly post-menopausal. And now two years into this new way of life there are three neck hairs (two thin, one thick), a chin hair (just the one) and lengthening moustache hairs (which, again, I tell myself are almost invisible…) that I also keep look out for. There’s a whole list of things that come with being post-menopausal and asking for a quick once-over of my jaw line with the electric razor at the end of a hair cut is now one of them.

It’s a lot for a body once flush with estrogen to suddenly have to acclimate to having none. I went to see a menopause specialist who said she would expect someone my age that is suddenly post-menopausal to experience severe hot flashes. Like all the great duos- Burns and Allen, Rogers and Hart, Salt n Pepa- menopause and hot flashes just seem to go together. I myself don’t experience really hot hot flashes, they’re more like warms. As it turns out, the medication I take to alleviate the nerve damage from the chemotherapy has a side effect of diminishing hot flashes: well there’s an unexpected benefit!

This year, aside from keeping my intentions for good self care, I want to be open to those unexpected benefits that are strewn across our path in life. The old adage ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’ is an invitation to peace and acceptance. There is so much in life that is beyond my control. The only thing I do control is my reaction to situations; I do my best to focus on the positive. And, lovely as it would be to make that decision once and never have to make it again, it’s a choice that I must make time and time again. Each time I have to choose. Each time I get to choose.

It may be a while before I choose to make that appointment at a laser hair removal clinic (I’ve got a lot of dishes to do, you know). So I ask that if the light catches one of those wiry bandits and you see that unmistakable glint in the sun to please let me know discretely so that I may remove it. In this New Year with its new opportunities I pledge to do the same for you.

Choosing opportunities of peace,
Karen