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Mr.  Whirligig stands on my porch.

You never know when the wind will set his arms spinning.

And that’s how I’ve found it to be with menopause.

You never know when a symptom (a new one or an old one) is going to start up.  Grumpiness.  Hot flashes.  Night sweats.  Insomnia.  Water retention.  Nervousness.  Dryness of one sort or another.  A period arriving six months after you figured you were done.

The wind’s direction determines which way Mr. Whirligig’s arms will twirl.  They can go one way or the other.

Is that the best way to handle the mercurial winds of menopause?  Twirl the way they send you?  Perhaps. They seem to be the boss, anyway.

I’m surprised sometimes, when Mr. Whirligig’s arms start  to turn.  A slight touch of wind, from nowhere in particular, will get a reaction.

It’s the same way with menopause.  Just when this girl is feeling calm, just when I think I’m finished, the symptoms swirl on back.

Drats and drats and DRATS!

Poet Christina Rossetti writes:

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you:

But when the leaves hang trembling,

The wind is passing through.

I would love to SEE a hormone.  What do these little buggers that cause me so much trouble look like!  (I’m not ditzing, really, on hormones.  I know they fill a biological purpose far beyond my understanding.)

But I want to lay eyes on one.  Actually,what I’d really like to do is have a conversation with one.

But I can’t.  And I can’t see the wind.   Neither can Mr. Whirligig.

All in all, he seems pretty content.  And he reminds me that when it comes to The Great Pause, there ain’t no telling just how that wind is gonna blow from day to day.

How about you?  Have the winds of PMS/Perimenopause/Menopause knocked you flat?  Or have you been able to twirl in the hormonal winds with the grace of a whirligig?

Photo:  Mr. Whirligig, who probably needs a more creative name, was handmade by someone whose name I will never know.  He was a gift from my mom.

Read more blogs from Barbara at http://friendfortheride.com

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Barbara Younger

Barbara Younger blogs from her home in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Along with Friend for the Ride: Encouraging Words for the Menopause Roller Coaster (http://friendfortheride.com), she writes books for children and adults. She lives in an old house with her husband Cliff. and collections of everything from dolls to buttons to bookmarks. She's the mother of two grown daughters and the grandmother to one adorable baby boy!