CLOSED FOR MENOPAUSE What Did Eve Do To Me?

Well now 45 and a half and rolling quickly downhill to 46, but surely right now I'm only I mean you might have one or two more periods but your test results show you should be done with them in about six months at the most. But I'm still young. The only person I could think of who reached menopause in their 40s was Ma Ingalls. Remember that episode when Laura announced her pregnancy and Caroline did too -- but it turns out that Caroline was NOT pregnant -- she was just in menopause.

And then she fell into a deep depression. Yeah, that's where my mind immediately went. Because I'm a child of the 70s -- and children of the 70s just cannot be in menopause yet, right? And I drove home that day confused. There was no menopause party. There's no drink at Starbucks that seems appropriate for the occasion. Buying a new handbag didn't seem logical, and there was no one I could call.

I couldn't call my husband and shock him with the fact that he's now married to an old woman. I didn't want to call my mother and join 'her club' or hear her words of encouragement as she would tell me that 'the change' is not so bad. Because I don't want to bond over anything to do with my body with a 66 year old.

And I don't want advice about hormone therapy or dropping estrogen levels. Most of my friends are still having babies, counting days of their cycle to get pregnant, and chatting about diapers, and still breast feeding. And then I wondered if menopause was just something you were suppose to go through alone without fanfare or attention. Something that you whispered in passing or kept to yourself. Something you mourn when you walked past the feminine hygiene aisle at Target when just months ago you were complaining about how much you spent each month on tampons because you had to insert three at a time to not bleed through your pants.

Because as much as I hate having my period Who do you call when you hear the words that you've entered menopause? When in your mind menopause is the affliction of grandmothers and doesn't look like a 45 year old with a four year old child. But the signs were there. I just didn't think about researching them because I feel young and was in no way prepared for hearing that I have started "The Change.

So if you are nearly my old age of 45 and are experiencing some interesting things with your body - well pay attention as something super fun is coming You have a few years of horrible and heavy periods. Periods that look like crime scenes and periods that can't be stopped even when inserting three tampons at a time.

Periods that make you throw away all white clothing and carry around a beach towel to sit on. Periods that last for weeks and start again just days later. Periods that control your life and girlfriends hound you to consider an ablation or hysterectomy. Maybe you don't like the word bitchy. So bitchy you think about ways to hurt your spouse because they chew food. That's right, they chew food AND don't re-fluff the pillows when they get up from the couch. You think about living on a desert island because everyone is annoying. No one gets you and you nit-pick everything. This might just be a sign of a hormonal imbalance.

Or everyone else is just an asshole. But if you are unusually bitchy - time to get things checked out. Because people must chew. Are you gaining weight just a little too easily? Like you eat one Thin Mint cookie and gain 12 pounds and two dress sizes overnight. Or you look at a donut and your button pops on your pants The second time round I popped baby out in twenty joyous minutes which included a small orgasm as she crowned.

The idea that women are sinful, very sinful, and occasions of sin for men, is as old as patriachal religion itself, and is one of the reasons I fled Christianity many years ago. Why should a bunch of ignorant after all, what can they possibly know about childbirth? The real question is not about the particular translation of a given word which my or may not render this teaching more or less palatable, but about the degree of masochism which is required for a woman to internalise such an idea in the first place.

I leave you with one question: How much pain will you tell her she must endure?

The menopause is no joking matter - believe me

And will you let her know of all the suffering she has in store while she is still a little girl -playing with her dolls, perhaps — or wait until she is on the threshold of the delivery room? In their name, shame on anyone who makes out it is somehow their own, female, fault.

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Like Liked by 3 people. June, thank you for your response and for your perseverance in posting! I think I will probably address some of the points in your comment in later posts in the series, but I wanted to address a couple of things here. In my own perception, it has been this very severance that is the core struggle of humankind. We can no longer access the immediate, infinite love of the Lover, and thus we often forget what it means to be Beloved. In my own journey as I have studies Scripture, I have had to personally confront some of the gender issues that arise in the Bible. I have prayed much over this topic, and have ultimately found peace in recognizing that the passages I struggle with are, in many ways, products of their own time.

In any case, I hope that sheds a little light on my own perspective. Finally, to your question about if I have a daughter, will I teach her to accept pain in childbirth: I will tell her the stories of my own births and the births of other women. Some have been painful, some have been orgasmic. Some are easy, and some are difficult.

My labor with my son was difficult. There were certainly moments of pain. However—and this is very important to me—pain does not equate suffering. I did not suffer. I will discuss this in later posts, but I hope to prepare my daughter as realistically as possible for what it might feel like. Each woman labors differently. It also depends on the position of the baby, the pattern of the labor, and whether it is her first child or not.

For myself, I made no connection to the pain of labor and anything having to do with sin or sinfulness. I was never taught that, myself.

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• The “Curse of Eve”—Is Pain Our Punishment? Part I?

So it was a non-issue. Labor was very spiritual for me. I felt very connected to the co-creative power within my womb and that of my own Creator. But not once did I ever connect sin to the pain—and thus there would be no reason for it to arise in conversation with my own daughters. If the message here is that women endure pain during childbirth because the sin Eve supposedly committed, maybe we should consider not taking this message so literal.

Why I say this is because we really have no evidence of that and we as a society were not there to witness any sin it has been said, Eve may have done. Regardless a woman has the power and strength to give birth to another life, unfortunately its become our responsibility when pregnancy takes place. Children can handle more than parents realize and age should not be a factor. I dont see how its relevant. I consider myself a strong woman and did experience pain and discomfort but the body can heel from this.

Yes women do die all the time from childbirth, I would think more in countries that lack health care and proper nutrition, you dont hear about it as much in the western culture. Men have the tendency in the church to think they are privileged telling women what they should and should not do, or what our roles are in society, we as women have been brain washed by man for centuries.

Ladies I prefer not to listen to a man words especially when it comes to the way I live my life or with my body, especially if it comes from a man out of the church. As a woman when my life is over and if I have my creator to answer to for any sin I have done, so be it, but until then, for me to follow the words of man in any religion is something I refuse to believe or do.

No man physical knows how it feels to be a woman and what we go through. No man has the right to advise or distinction the child birth pain is a reference from the sin women have done or that Eve may have once committed and this is our reason for having pain during childbirth. Like Liked by 1 person. You ask how much suffering and for how long??

I can answer that………. When women have children there is a special connection between her offspring and the mother. When our children suffer we suffer………. So our suffering will be tied to the birth of our children and watching them grow in this cruel hateful world. We will watch them suffer emotionally, physically and spiritual. Their pain will be our pain because we love them so. We brought them forth through our pain in labour.

And we watch our children suffer all the days of our life. And on my death bed I will only be thinking of my children that they are able to thrive without me and that they hang on to Christs words so that our separation will only be a short time when we are joined again in heaven. And death and separation are the worst punishment of all. Men have a punishment too……….. God does not discriminate. You do realize that the man was punished too, right?

And I am a female. I am a Christian. I deal with this topic in my novel, Secret Lives, in Chapter 6, where young Janie has her first period. The chapter ends with a menarche ritual. How their god punishes them for disobeying him when all Eve was doing was obeying the Goddess? Well, She was manifesting in the serpent, and the serpent is one of Her sacred animals. She speaks to them on Her behalf. I read about that. Well, except for those nights you spied on your brothers. Yes, Daddy and I know about that. Anyway, their god gets angry and tells them that from now on, women will have babies in pain.

Some people think that story is true, that women are doomed to suffer. Would have been in the Garden of Eden to report it? Somebody from Channel 4? Wherever you want to go. To pagan, the idea of being punished for giving life and more ancient giving your life in giving birth is frankly, revolting. Sometimes labour of any kind is painful. Harvesting after planting is hard work and you are blessed for your labour by the outcome.

Pain is just as much a part of life as feeling joy and the birthing process has both, hopefully. Since animals feel pain in the birthing process too, it is illogical to think that God would punish them for non-exitant sin. Like Liked by 2 people.

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Stacia, I hope you will put this discussion in a larger context and clarify the assumptions leading you to think Christian women should consider this particular text when thining about their own birthing processes. Are you arguing that everything the Bible says should be listened to and followed, including statements that men can have more than one wife and own slaves and concubines? Or is this passage to be listened to but not the others?

I think many Christian and Jewish women would simply say that this text is sexist and the traditions must move on. Carol raises what is, perhaps, the central point here: I have not been a Christian for too many years to count, but as a child and adolescent I thought a good deal about these things.

Christ really lived, really died, and really rose again, in real time: I come with a New Law. While deeply versed in traditional Jewish teaching, he made it clear that, where there was a conflict between tradition the teaching we find in the Old Testament and the message he preached, then the old lessons should be rejected in favour of the new.

People would have remained pagan or Jewish. But they became Christians, they embraced the New Law. What, otherwise, would have been the point of the Incarnation in the first place? Not a single woman is involved in this. But the women remain loyal throughout the whole terrible business. Perhaps for this reason, Christ entrusts his message to three women at the resurection: But this takes us into the argument for women priests which must keep for another time. Back to women, Jesus, and gynaecology. We might want to remember the story of the woman with the issue of blood. This event is profoundly important for Chrisistian women.

In traditional Jewish society, menstruation made a woman unclean. She was polluted and polluting. She had to keep apart while bleeding. Her menses were a source of shame and humiliation for herself and disgust to others. This poor woman had been bleeding a long time. Can you imagine the shame, the despair? The sheer inconvenience she would not, for example, have been permitted to cook for her husband, or share his bed. Now, had Jesus been a strict follower of the old law he would have turned on the woman and exercrated her for daring to come anywhere near him.

But this is the New Law. He commends her faith, and sends her away healed. Now, would anyone care to quote me where Jesus says that women should suffer pain simply because the Goddess has conferrred upon them and upon them alone the sacred right to bring new life in to the world? Hi Carol, You bring up an interesting point.

When I teach my childbirth education or anything else I teach, in fact , I say up front that there are things that I believe make the birth experience best for ME naturally, at home, with a midwife. So I see my job as simply being a provider of additional information and let each couple decide what they want to do based on this new acquisition of knowledge. If they are aware of the existing risks and benefits of a certain medication and decide that they want to take it anyway, then I respect that decision as long as it is well-informed.

I see this post in a similar light. Religion, faith, and the interpretation of Scripture are all very personal things. Each person must decide what is right for them, what speaks to them, and how their Creator moves in and through their lives. But when I had a number of people come to me and question me on this particular passage probably because I have studied Scripture and work with birthing women, so it seemed like a natural question to ask…? What women and men decide to do with this addition information remains, to me, a personal decision, and I leave each person to do with it what they will.

Personally, I think the argument for pain as punishment is bunk, but again—that is my own belief. Each person must make their own journey. Hope that helps put my effort in context. Firstly, you need to realise that the Bible is the literal Word of God. God says so in the Bible itself. Secondly, there is nowhere in the Bible where God says a Man can have more than 1 wife. Could you please show me the scripture to validate your assertion as true. If you cannot find the scripture relating to that, then the premise of your argument is false, and can therefore not be relied upon. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; 1 Timothy 3: And his wives turned away his heart. The right of the firstborn is his. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

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The sons of Rachel: These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. And he took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. Finally, this says it all: I just have to say that I am uncomfortable with positive comparisons of Christianity to Judaism and even with positive comparisons of the New Testament to the Hebrew Bible.

The story is in the Hebrew Bible but it is not nearly as central in Judaism as it is in Christianity. Boys are taken behind the screen to be presented at baptism to God, girls are not. Hi, Carol, and thank you for your response. It was certainly not my intention to compare Christianity positively to Judaism or Islam. My point was to try and show ways in which it might be possible for women to accept Christ without necessarily taking on all that jehovah stuff — as I believe it is. From my own perspective, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all one as bad as the other in their treatment of women, and I want no truck with any of them.

Jesus never showed any contempt or loathing toward women, but, on the contrary, encouraged their faith, learning and ministry. In my own spirituality, I prefer a relationship with a deity who comes to me as a woman, like myself. And while I suspect that the attempt to rescue Christianity or Judaism or Islam from its brutal woman-hating past and present is doomed, it may just be that Christianity will yet survive in a new, radically feminised form.

Please note that there is a difference between Religion and Christianity. The hallmark or cornerstone of Religion is idolatory e. Catholics praying through Mary and believing in water baptism. Lutherans believing that water baptism brings you to heaven. Bhuddist believing that they are their own God and believing that cows are holy and Muslims asserting that God does not have a son which directly contradicts scripture relating to the Godhead The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost.

So Allah cannot be a Christian God who is signified by the Godhead but an idol. Conversely, a Christian is someone who can tell you how to go to heaven when you die. This is what Christians believe in. That we agree with God that we are all sinners as God has declared us and that the wages of sin is death. And that Jesus Christ was crucified, died and He was buried. Has risen from death after 3 days in order to save us sinners from everlasting death in hell and everlasting torment away from his face eternally.

So, if you accept that you are a sinner and accept and believe that Jesus Christ died for you to save you from everlasting torment in hell, you are a Christian and on your way to heaven. Salvation is a gift from God and man does not have to do anything except to believe. We go to heaven not by our own righteousness but by accepting the gift that God gave us. Not to leave out Hinduism — there are hundreds of Hindu goddesses worshipped and celebrated in temples all over India today. Yet menstruating women are not allowed to enter a Hindu temple.

Women are not allowed to chant and recite one of the most important Hindu mantras — the Gayatri mantra, named after the Goddess Gayatri. I also believe that there is a continuing need to explore and explain the real original, intended and literal meaning in the Scriptures. A seemingly minor misinterpretation can give a totally different understanding. For example, according to Christian interpretation, the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden is an apple, despite the fact that there is no scriptural evidence to suggest this.

Jewish Rabbinical scholars still debate, if the tree of knowledge was a pomegranate or fig tree. This is pretty remarkable, considering, that both pomegranates and figs are the symbols of ancient Goddesses and also menstruation. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. This suggests to the reader that contact with menstruating women is dangerous.

If Jesus, felt power going out of him, what chances would ordinary mortal men have after contact with a menstruating woman? This may include anyone from someone with in-growing toenail, to a person to terminal illness. Most women with menstrual problems would find it rather humiliating to go into details in a crowd. Please note that scripture interprets itself.

The “Curse of Eve”—Is Pain Our Punishment? Part I

There is nowhere in the Bible where it says that the tree in the middle of the garden was an apple or a pomegrenade or any fruit at all. The Bible does not say what fruit it is.

The problem with interpreting the Bible is that humans will always want to read their own minds into the Bible. Also remember that there were 2 trees in the Garden of Eden, the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and the tree of Life, which is also spoken of in the Book of Revelation.

That is why Adam and Eve were banished from the garden because if they then ate from the tree of life, they would then live for ever. Interpreting the Bible assumes that God wanted to say something other than what He said in the Bible. Some passages in the Bible are difficult to understand that is why God said the following: The English dictionary defines study as the following:. The devotion of time and attention to gaining knowledge of an academic subject, especially by means of books 2.

A detailed investigation and analysis of a subject or situation. Also, it is important to take heed of what version of the Bible you use. I would stay clear from the NIV by all means for the following reasons:. The clearest verse in the Bible proclaiming that Jesus Christ was God. There is no antecedent in the context! The statement does NOT make sense! The NIV subtilty see Genesis 3: Not if you believe the virgin birth!

Not if you believe John 3: