October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
I know that I am not the only one who thinks of Fall as the beginning of the New Year. It’s that embedded back-to-school schedule – ours then and our children’s now. I am much more inclined to get going in October than in January.
What’s more, while my January resolutions have more to do with self-improvement (or self-criticism) – perennially “go on a diet” – my October plans are more about taking care of business and beefing up the rewarding parts of my life. This year my main resolution is to rejoin the Thursday life-drawing class that I used to enjoy, but slipped off my calendar a couple of years ago.
Here Are My Other Suggestions:
1. Keep reading books at the same pace you did during the summer. If you are finding it annoying to lug around a 500-page tomes, try a Kindle. It makes all the difference. And recommend good reads to your friends. Debbi Honorof, who recently interviewed me at a Transition Network (TTN) event, writes reviews for Long Island Woman magazine. She is very enthusiastic about Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor (Viking / 2009/ $25.95). Here is how she summarizes the plot:
In Traveling with Pomegranates, Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, and her daughter, Ann Taylor Kidd, write of their travels together and how they drew upon their respective experiences to gain clarity in their lives. Along the way, they rediscover their relationship with each other…Ann, who had been quietly suffering from depression, searches for answers about her ultimate purpose in life…Sue, who had just turned 50 when the first trip took place, was coming to terms with her transition into become an older woman.”
2. Remember Good Health is about Maintenance
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (see links to groups you will want to connect with at the end of this feature).
While you are at it, though, be aware of other important cancer-detection opportunities you miss at your peril.
Here is what you need to know about neglecting your mammogram:
Older age is the single greatest risk factor for breast cancer in women. According to the American Cancer Society (1999), breast cancer risk increases from 1 in 67 at age 40 to 1 in 25 at age 70, and the incidence continues increasing to age 80. More than one-half of all breast cancers occur in women age 65 or over. Mammography screening has been demonstrated to reduce breast cancer mortality, especially among women in the age group 50-74 compared with those without mammography.
And consider that other regular item – the Pap smear. The risk of getting cervical cancer increases with age (over half the new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed each year are in women over 50) but the good news is that the cure rate also increases with early detection by a Pap smear.
3. Invent something – literally. I recently met two sisters who were just beginning to market their brainchild – “Not So Hot.” It is a collapsible (on a folding spring) round fan that comes in a little compact-sized bag for those times when you are the only one in the room who thinks the heat is turned up too high. (www.not-so-hot.com). Don’t we all have ideas for things we wish someone else would invent? (Mine is a dip-stick to confirm that you are really being served decaf coffee). What are we waiting for?
4. Enjoy contemplating What’s Next!
We are beginning to get it – we are not our mothers’ fifty- sixty- and seventy- year-olds and we have lots to do and accomplish and discover during our Second Adulthood. So even if Next looks far off, why not begin dreaming and investigating instead of dreading and worrying? One way to share your curiosity and benefit from the discoveries of like-minded women is to join a group like The Transition Network (www.thetransitionnetwork.org) an organization with multi-city branches devoted to women making change from a professional chapter in their lives to – another professional chapter, or volunteering, or consulting, or simply discovering.
Another way of thinking about the future is to get to know Civic Ventures (I have just become a Board member), a terrific organization that encourages and rewards social entrepreneurs and the creation of what they call Encore Careers. Founded by Marc Freedman (left), author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, they spread the word about the value of workers over fifty and at the same time support and create opportunities for people to transition “from money to meaning.” Just reading the stories on their website will give you ideas and inspiration (www.encore.org).
5. Take Something On/Let Something Go
Our first video series – Why Fifty is the New Fifty – from the panel at Barnes and Noble in New York is now available here for FREE in Watch and Share. In “Episodes” 4 and 5, our moderator Lesley Jane Seymour, editor of More magazine and the panel – Gloria Steinem, Isabella Rossellini, Rep. Donna F. Edwards and I talk about:
Taking Risks – “What kind of risks are you willing to take on today that you weren’t when you were younger?”
Reconsidering Regrets – “What do you have absolutely no regrets about?”
Their answers may surprise you, and will surely entertain and inspire you.
Additional links for Breast Cancer Awareness Month:
Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation
http://www.dslrf.org
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
http://www.nbcam.org/
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
www.komen.org
Breast Cancer Prevention
http://stanford.wellsphere.com/breast-cancer-prevention-cause/258185
National Women’s Health Network
http://www.nwhn.org/