{"id":843,"date":"2011-11-18T10:10:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T15:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thequeenofmyself\/?p=843"},"modified":"2011-11-14T17:22:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T22:22:17","slug":"843","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/843.html","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>I have been inundated lately by article, poems and stories about the so-called \u201cMidlife Crisis.\u201d Clearly it is subject very much on the minds of many, many women.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>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<p><em>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<p><em>\u00a0As always, I invite you to <a href=\"thequeenofmyself@aol.com\" target=\"_blank\">send me your stories<\/a> \u2014 experiences, advice, and inspiration to share with our community of Midlife Queens.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Midlife Crisis or Midlife Consciousness? You choose!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>xxQueen Mama Donna<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>I Turned 50 Today<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By <a href=\"http:\/\/hardwonwisdom.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fawn Germer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I was 29, I went to a therapist<\/p>\n<p>And told her<\/p>\n<p>I felt old.<\/p>\n<p>I turned 50 today,<\/p>\n<p>under the towers of Zion<\/p>\n<p>where I cycled and hiked and laughed until<\/p>\n<p>the day ended in darkness<\/p>\n<p>under the watch of a million desert stars.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, I am officially irrelevant,<\/p>\n<p>A middle-aged woman,<\/p>\n<p>Invisible.<\/p>\n<p>Yes!<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t tell, but I sneaked into the pool of a five-star resort<\/p>\n<p>Just put my beach bag on a real nice lounger and when I put on my sunscreen,<\/p>\n<p>A server brought me a glass of champagne,<\/p>\n<p>Because she thought I belonged there\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Free champagne, I am so free.<\/p>\n<p>I can wear whatever bathing suit and show off all kinds of cellulite because,<\/p>\n<p>At this point,<\/p>\n<p>No one is looking to criticize<\/p>\n<p>The middle-aged woman.<\/p>\n<p>Let the world ignore me while I ignore the expectations<\/p>\n<p>Every day,<\/p>\n<p>I will look up to God and<\/p>\n<p>kiss warm light.<\/p>\n<p>I choose not to dream,<\/p>\n<p>But to live.<\/p>\n<p><em>*****<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Donna Henes is the author of<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thequeenofmyself.com\" target=\"_blank\"> 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. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donnahenes.net\/queen\/consult.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Consult the MIDLIFE MIDWIFE\u2122<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Queen welcomes questions concerning all issues of interest to women in their mature years. Send your inquiries to <a href=\"thequeenofmyself@aol.com\" target=\"_blank\">thequeenofmyself@aol.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; I have been inundated lately by article, poems and stories 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,&hellip;<\/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":[194,190,397,62,13,195,200,178,44,60],"class_list":["post-843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midlife","category-wisdom","category-womens-issues","tag-beauty","tag-celebrate","tag-change","tag-courage","tag-holistic-living","tag-mature-beauty","tag-midlife-crisis","tag-older-women","tag-self-confidence","tag-transformation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>- 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\/843.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=\"&nbsp; I have been inundated lately by article, poems and stories 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? 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Or is it an invention of the media \u2014 that is,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/843.html","og_site_name":"The Queen of My Self","article_published_time":"2011-11-18T15:10:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-11-14T22:22:17+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\/843.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/11\/843.html","name":"- The Queen of My Self","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-11-18T15:10:07+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-14T22:22:17+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\/843.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\/843","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=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}