Last night I caught myself thinking about one of those roles and wondering what it will be like to lose that part of my identity. What will I do, how will I feel, what will it be like to no longer be a _____________________, but to be a _______________________________ instead?
(Feel free to fill in those blanks with your own terms. It could be the shift from student to graduate, from employed to retired, from single to married, from non-parent to parent, or parent to grandparent.)


While I muddled over those thoughts, playing with scenarios in my mind the way a toddler splashes in a puddle, churning my head into a murky mess, I heard the words, "day by day."
Not the song, just the phrase.

Jesus made it pretty clear: "So don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time." Matthew 6:34 TLB

 But how many of us really, truly live that way? Not worried about tomorrow, not fretting about next month or next year or the next decade, just living "one day at a time"?



If I had to give myself a grade for how well I live one day at a time, it would probably be a big, fat, red "D"  or maybe even a "D-".

It's a difficult concept for those of us who are compelled to accomplish and achieve and perform in order to feel worthy of approval and acceptance.


It might be a difficult concept, but it has to be better than living in dread and doubt and dismay, which are the results of worry and fretting about the future!


So there's my challenge... one day at a time. How do YOU do it? Maybe the letter "E" will provide an awesome answer!


Until then, don't forget to visit the other great a2z meme bloggers. I've been blessed by their posts and I think you will be, too.

Every season of life has its own application of Newton's second law of motion: Force. (Force = mass * acceleration)

There's the steady pace of childhood—painfully slow springtime afternoons melting in a hot classroom, and the speed at which Christmas vacations come and go. The ever-changing years of adolescence where we learn the skills of communication that shape our relationships. Really, those hours and hours spent on the phone had a purpose!

Things speed up after that ... college, career, marriage, children.

photo by Mike_tn	via PhotoRee

Perhaps everything seems to "go" faster because we add more mass to our lives—the weight of responsibility in the form of caring for little ones, and making contracts, and paying bills, and so forth.

At each new season there's a period of transition as we take on mass or release it. As my children speed through their own teenage years, becoming less and less dependent on my care (less willing to be dependent on my care, anyway), I find myself floundering, floating from day to day and month to month without enough mass to move steadily forward in one direction. The things that used to propel me through my day, getting everyone up, making them do their chores, leading them through a day of homeschooling, preparing and cleaning up multiple meals, doing chores again, and getting them all in bed on time, those things have all changed.

Potential projects and ideas, things I WANT to be doing, pile up around my ears. Theoretically I have more time to do them, but without any momentum it's hard to get started on anything, so I end up doing things that are completely pointless. Case in point: I spent at least three hours yesterday looking at real estate on the Internet. Are we moving? Not that I'm aware of.

photo by Genista	via PhotoRee

So it's time to regroup. Much like the end of a Star Trek episode, when all is resolved and the captain turns to the navigator and says, "Set a course for ________." That's where I'm at. I've had enough of this commercial break! It's time to find my focus, create a schedule, and get back on track. (I've been saying this to myself for months, but putting it out here in public makes me accountable to my own words!)

I'm setting Friday, April 1 as my first day on my new course, which gives me a bit of time to plan and program ... and figure out how I'm going to break this horrid habit of living in my pajamas and workout clothes.

How have you adapted to change of life's seasons thus far? Any words of wisdom?

Irritable Man Syndrome.
IMS. It's real. As real as PMS in women. It's also referred to as "andropause," and may be responsible for the so-called mid-life crisis that triggers previously intelligent, rational males to expose their chest hair, wear entirely too much jewelry, make unnecessary purchases, and have "wandering" eyes.

And just like PMS and menopause are related, it's possible the cycling of male hormones is responsible for seasonal fluctuations in mood and behavior in our men.

The primary male hormone is, of course, testosterone. It's the source of all those lovely male characteristics we admire, like facial hair, big muscles and deep voices. It's also linked to aggression. Testosterone levels rise and fall in the male system on a biweekly cycle, although those biweekly highs and lows are not as pronounced as the rise and fall of estrogen and progesterone in a woman's menstrual cycle.

The variation in testosterone levels in spring and fall is noteworthy, however, even to the point of men performing better on certain kinds of tests during certain seasons.

Testosterone levels are elevated in the fall. Coinciding with hunting season, fall football, and the World Series. It's also rutting season for deer and elk. For animals with long gestations, this makes sense. If the animal mates in the fall, the babies will be born in the spring or summer, when food is plentiful and the weather is conducive to growth and development of young. Bighorn sheep do battle with each other in the fall, ramming their heads together over and over again until they fall down or one of them gives up. Sounds like football, doesn't it? The list of symptoms related to high testosterone levels includes things like oily skin, hair loss, and acne breakouts.


Conversely, in the spring, testosterone levels drop. Men do better on math tests in the spring. And it might seem like they would be happier, more relaxed. Not so. Low levels of testosterone have been linked to (these are also considered symptoms of andropause in men between 40 and 55 years of age):  Anxiety, bouts of anger, frustration, jealousy, hot flashes, fatigue, weight gain, depression, insomnia, defensiveness, demanding behaviors, temper tantrums, unloving and sarcastic attitudes, decreased libido and erectile dysfunction.

Consider a hungry, sleepy bear coming out of hibernation and you've probably got a reasonable picture of a fella with low testosterone in the spring.

Now (and I admit freely this is NOT a scientific study) think about your significant other. What's he like in the springtime? Do you tend to fight more? Does he seem irrational? Is he grouchy like an old bear? Does it seem like you have the same "discussions" every year at about the same time? Maybe you do.

Of course, visiting a doctor for this "condition" is probably not necessary, as if you could get your guy into a doctor's office to admit to "childish tantrums" or being "demanding." Ha! So as women, what can we do to help our men deal with their hormonal fluctuations? Bring home chocolate? Possibly. Making sure his diet contains a healthy amount of fat is important.

Diet, exercise, and rest play a definite role in male hormone levels. We might be able to do something about those factors, by encouraging exercise and providing healthy foods. (Not soy, or other phytoestrogen containing foods!) We might be able to reduce stress by creating a peaceful environment to come home to at night.

And perhaps we can do the one thing no one else can do for them that will raise testosterone levels: have sex. Frequently. Funny, that's usually the LAST thing you feel like doing with ol' grumbly bear-man, but it might just be part of the fix!

With spring just around the corner (in Colorado spring is always around one more corner, and then one day you wake up and it's August), pay attention to your fella's state of mind. Is he cranky? Instead of taking it personally and getting in a snit about his snit, show some mercy and consider he might be experiencing a bout of hormone imbalance. Unlike you, he has no real understanding of what's happening to his body, or that it's affecting his mind and attitude as well. And don't make rash decisions... at least not for a couple of months! This too shall pass!








http://www.theirritablemale.com/quiz.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_2297630_increase-testosterone-naturally.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-irritable-male-syndrome-ims.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/14/us/men-s-test-scores-linked-to-hormone.html?pagewanted=1