Carrie Link

THE BREAKING POINT

"Rivers in extremely cold climates freeze over in the winter. In the spring, when they thaw, the sound of ice cracking is an incredibly violent sound. The more extensive and severe the freeze, the more thunderous the thaw, yet, at the end of the cracking, breaking, violent period, the river is open, life-giving, life-carrying. No one says, "Let's not suffer the thaw; let's keep the freeze; everything is quiet now." - Mary E. Mebane, Mary, Wayfarer: An Autobiography

Totally engrossed in this book with about one "aha!" per minute.

Did you know:

* 42 million US women are nearing, or in, middle age, approximately between the ages of 38 -55?

* 15 million of them will have, or are already having, a midlife crisis

* Menopause is not synonymous with a midlife crisis, fewer than 1% of women report menopause as being behind their crisis

* The average age for a midlife crisis, for women, is 44.6 (I was 44.3 when I "left my children.")

* 73% of American women between the ages of 40 - 54, describe life as "much too complicated"

* "During this time of 'crisis' a feeling of urgency arises: Now is the time to either fulfill your dreams, or give them up. To respond is to cast a lifeline to drowning parts of ourselves."

* During this period of time it is likely we will find a "midlife messiah(s)" - someone to whom we look to, to guide us through

* More WOMEN, than men, experience a midlife crisis

* This generation of midlifers is more than twice the size of the WWII generation of men that fought that war and transformed the US economy, and three times the size of the suffragette generation

* This population of women is so large, few sectors of society will remain untouched

Can't talk now, gotta go hear me some Helen Reddy!