{"id":828,"date":"2011-11-01T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thequeenofmyself\/?p=828"},"modified":"2011-11-05T16:32:28","modified_gmt":"2011-11-05T20:32:28","slug":"828","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/828.html","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

I have been inundated lately by articles about the so-called \u201cMidlife Crisis.\u201d Clearly it is subject very much on the minds of many, many women.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mid Life Crisis: What is it? Is it inevitable? Is it even a real phenomenon? Or is it an invention of the media \u2014 that is, corporate advertising trying to sell us things we don\u2019t need? (Not only do we not need these cosmetic and quasi-medical accoutrements, they are downright insulting and sometimes even dangerous.)\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

These writings cover the gamut of opinions, ideas, and suggestions about coping with a Midlife Crisis, ours or someone else\u2019s. I offer them up to you to for your interest and edification.<\/em><\/p>\n

As always, I invite you to send me your stories <\/a>\u2014 experiences, advice, and inspiration to share with our community of Midlife Queens.<\/em><\/p>\n

Midlife Crisis or Midlife Consciousness? You choose!<\/em><\/p>\n

xxQueen Mama Donna<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Sharon Olds<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

One day you finally knew<\/p>\n

what you had to do, and began,<\/p>\n

though the voices around you<\/p>\n

kept shouting<\/p>\n

their bad advice\u2013<\/p>\n

though the whole house<\/p>\n

began to tremble<\/p>\n

and you felt the old tug<\/p>\n

at your ankles.<\/p>\n

\u201cMend my life!\u201d<\/p>\n

each voice cried.<\/p>\n

But you didn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n

You knew what you had to do,<\/p>\n

though the wind pried<\/p>\n

with its stiff fingers<\/p>\n

at the very foundations,<\/p>\n

though their melancholy<\/p>\n

was terrible.<\/p>\n

It was already late<\/p>\n

enough, and a wild night,<\/p>\n

and the road full of fallen<\/p>\n

branches and stones.<\/p>\n

But little by little,<\/p>\n

as you left their voices behind,<\/p>\n

the stars began to burn<\/p>\n

through the sheets of clouds,<\/p>\n

and there was a new voice<\/p>\n

which you slowly<\/p>\n

recognized as your own,<\/p>\n

that kept you company<\/p>\n

as you strode deeper and deeper<\/p>\n

into the world,<\/p>\n

determined to do<\/p>\n

the only thing you could do\u2013<\/p>\n

determined to save<\/p>\n

the only life you could save.<\/p>\n

– From Wild Geese<\/p>\n

*****<\/em><\/p>\n

Donna Henes is the author of The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife.<\/a> She is the Midlife Midwife\u2122 offering counseling and upbeat, practical and ceremonial guidance for individual women and groups who want to enjoy the fruits of an enriching, influential, purposeful, passionate, and powerful maturity. Consult the MIDLIFE MIDWIFE\u2122<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0The Queen welcomes questions concerning all issues of interest to women in their mature years. Send your inquiries to thequeenofmyself@aol.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I have been inundated lately by articles about the so-called \u201cMidlife Crisis.\u201d Clearly it is subject very much on the minds of many, many women. Mid Life Crisis: What is it? Is it inevitable? Is it even a real phenomenon? Or is it an invention of the media \u2014 that is, corporate advertising trying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11,3],"tags":[53,62,13,507,494,508,60],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midlife","category-wisdom","category-womens-issues","tag-advice","tag-courage","tag-holistic-living","tag-moving-forward","tag-new-start","tag-self-confidence-self-motivated","tag-transformation"],"yoast_head":"\n- The Queen of My Self<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/828.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"- The Queen of My Self\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  I have been inundated lately by articles about the so-called \u201cMidlife Crisis.\u201d Clearly it is subject very much on the minds of many, many women. Mid Life Crisis: What is it? Is it inevitable? Is it even a real phenomenon? Or is it an invention of the media \u2014 that is, corporate advertising trying…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/828.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Queen of My Self\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T14:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-05T20:32:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Donna Henes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"- The Queen of My Self","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/828.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"- The Queen of My Self","og_description":"  I have been inundated lately by articles about the so-called \u201cMidlife Crisis.\u201d Clearly it is subject very much on the minds of many, many women. Mid Life Crisis: What is it? Is it inevitable? Is it even a real phenomenon? Or is it an invention of the media \u2014 that is, corporate advertising trying…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/828.html","og_site_name":"The Queen of My Self","article_published_time":"2011-11-01T14:00:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-11-05T20:32:28+00:00","author":"Donna Henes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/828.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/828.html","name":"- The Queen of My Self","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-11-01T14:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-05T20:32:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#\/schema\/person\/544e888db264d2e1c6e32fd2f80c031a"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/828.html"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/","name":"The Queen of My Self","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Donna Henes","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#\/schema\/person\/544e888db264d2e1c6e32fd2f80c031a","name":"Donna Henes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0c6\/0c683cd428803d35cf10fae85f8125ebx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0c6\/0c683cd428803d35cf10fae85f8125ebx96.jpg","caption":"Donna Henes"},"description":"Donna Henes is an internationally renowned urban shaman, ritual expert, award-winning author, popular speaker and workshop leader whose joyful celebrations of celestial events have introduced ancient traditional rituals and contemporary ceremonies to millions of people in more than 100 cities since 1972. She has published four books, a CD, an acclaimed Ezine and writes for The Huffington Post and UPI Religion and Spirituality Forum. Mama Donna, as she is affectionately called, maintains a ceremonial center, spirit shop, ritual practice and consultancy where she works with individuals, groups, institutions, municipalities and corporations to create meaningful ceremonies for every imaginable occasion.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.thequeenofmyself.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/author\/dhenes"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}