Transition

Menstuff® has compiled information and books on the issue of transition, mid-life crisis, andropause (men), viropause (men) and menopause (women.)

About Dad
Becoming Whole Men
Mid-Life Crisis
Men May Have Biological Clocks, Too
Rites of Passage
Male Menopause
Common Signs of Male Menopause
Hot Flashes for Men?
Is Male Menopause Real?
Life Neither Begins nor Ends at 40, It Slows Down
Treating this Heavy Midlife of Men
He Played the Game by the Rules, but Why?
Adjusting To Retirement
Men's Stories
Books
Resources: What Men Need to Know about Women and Menopause, www.menalive.com , www.menopauseinfo.org

 About Dad by Marie Hatton

The light dims
bit by bit,
in his mind.

You can see it
as he squints
to understand,
and then doesn't.

It gets harder to see
the forest for the trees,
so he turns away, from this,
his befuddlement.

And in the dimming
of the the present, he looks back
to days much brighter,
when his walk was swift
and times were gay,
or hard, or sweet,
or terrible.

Of these things he is certain,
so again and again he replays them,
and sometimes,
he seems less certain,
and something small
has changed.

Repetition is his solace,
and his last hold on reason,
and authority,
yet it too, slowly,
slips a bit.

I am not sad to watch this,
I know it is his final season.
And what dims here
in this world,
will brighten anew, I believe,
in another.

Transition is hard, but as they go
this one is softer, gentler than most.
No pain but the stab of anger, from frustration,
and grief,
and the loss,
of a man
he remembers being.

We laugh...
whenever we can.

He tells his tales
over again to me,
and I make note of who,
and what and where and when,
and let go of details
when it all gets too fogged in,
again.

And I smile and nod
with all the patience
I never knew
I could muster.

I go with him,
part of the way,
to where he needs to be,
and I don't try to understand,
not completely.

It is not for me he performs
these stories, it is for him.
And my place is as witness,
to the decline and fall of
the Father Empire.

I do not jump ahead,
I stay right here and wait.
The time for sorrow will come,
and soon enough...
soon enough
shall grief be mine.

And it will be my story then,
to tell my children one day,
in the reliving of my glory days...
and his.

Life Neither Begins nor Ends at 40, It Slows Down


Some say life begins at 40 and others believe that's where it may as well end, but research released on Tuesday showed that most of us just slow down.

Research presented to the British Psychological Society in London showed that our reaction times, concentration span and powers! of memory start to decline markedly from the age of 40 to 45 years onwards.
Source: www.healthcentral.com/news/newsfulltext.cfm?ID=46143&src=n46

Adjusting To Retirement


Depending on how you deal with it, retirement can be an exciting time filled with opportunities or a painful transition that brings boredom, lack of purpose and discouragement.
Source: www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/EMIHC270/8271/28051/268115.html?d=dmtContent

*    *    *

During my youth love will be my teacher;
In middle age, my help and in old age, my delight.
- Kahlil Gibran

Age is not a handicap. Age is nothing but a number. It is how you use it. - Ethel Payne

Surfing the Internet - 32% of parents and grandparents have been taught or encouraged by 13 to 16 year olds



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