Recently, I had occasion to engage in a conversation with a younger woman who was bemoaning the discomfort and inconvenience of having her period. But realistically, every woman, female, and girl-child who has reached that season of her life, knows with an instinctive knowing that there is never really a convenient time for a period to show up. I don’t care how many commercials they show with us smiling, jumping, running, and have a good ole time finding the right fit for a pad or tampon with the perfect amount of absorbency minus the thickness so we can swim and date and dance and whatever other joyous activities they attribute to us in the midst of our periods, unless you are the exception …it just ain’t so. And as she conveyed her displeasure with “that” look of annoyance on her face, accompanied by eye rolling and teeth sucking, I giggled and remembered when……

When I was discomforted by cramps and bloating.

When I was inconvenienced by the fleeting days that brought me back too too quickly to “that time of the month”.When it both interfered with and dictated the range of my activities.

When I was preoccupied having to monitor my clothing choices for any possible mishaps or giveaways.

When I was worried because I needed it to come, pissed off because I needed it to wait, or relieved by its arrival.

When I complained about that all too familiar abdominal sensation that would bend me over like a stale pretzel, thwarting my plans for any activities on a particular day.

When I would lose my mind for no identifiable reason.

When my mother looked at me like I was pathetic but took care of me anyway with a laugh, hot water bottle and a couple of tylenol.

When it was just a part of who I was without any dramatic events or thoughts attached to it.

When it simply and simplistically, just was.

But in the midst of that conversation and without having the time to identify, organize or understand the range of words, thoughts and feelings that flooded through me bringing me to the fullness of this moment, I nodded, smiled slightly but with perhaps a little too much glee in my eyes and said, “Yeah chile’, I know exactly what you mean. I so remember”. And of course, my response was followed by that proverbial chuckle of seasoned understanding. Playfully she smirked and said, “Lucky you” as she walked away with the resignation of her situation in tow.

Sitting there in my undisturbed place I began to think back on the days when I lamented my period. And a bit further down the road, the days when I lamented the absence of my period. And I didn't feel so lucky under either circumstance. I remembered routinely missing a day at school or work pretty much all the way through. And then when my body transitioned into the next phase of life, I felt powerless and betrayed because everything that was happening was happening without my permission and I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready for it to come and I wasn't ready for it to go. But it did anyway.

Now I know there are plenty of my sisters who say, that they couldn't/can’t wait until the day they didn't/don’t have to worry with “it” no more. Free at last, free at last. Hallelujah!!! Matter of fact, as a young woman, I held an invisible fist up in solidarity to this chant of revelry. And when the time came I might have shouted with relief and release had it not caught me by surprise. I knew I didn't want any more babies but my body decided its' when without speaking to my mind and getting clearance from my spirit. So yes, I was challenged with all of my contradictory thoughts and feelings from “amen” to “boo hoo”. (I'm guessing this emotional discord was an introductory glance into the genesis of my "change").

And yet as I pen this I am very keenly aware there are some of my sisters out there who never had the opportunity to experience what is called the natural order of fertility for a number of reasons. Those that experienced medical conditions and/or life circumstances that precluded them from wishing for an end as they could only hope and pray for a beginning to their season. And to these, my/our sisters I say, regarding our outcry against this seasonal onslaught that we have endured, we are merely but realistically, jokingly and without malice simply responding to and through a different life experience.

So when it's all been said and done, thinking back and looking forward I have to admit and proclaim that I am a Lucky Me….

Lucky to know and to have known the natural and uninterrupted course of my woman life-bearing, life-giving era.

Lucky to have menstruated until it was time for my transition into menopause – no surgical, environmental or accidental disturbances dictating my outcome.

Lucky to have been allowed the blessing of motherhood, and now being a Sugar.

Lucky to have gone through the process of females through the life-cycle.

Lucky to laugh at the memories.

Lucky to be free of sorrow for the passing away of my fertility

Lucky to get to tease and celebrate the young-uns as they journey with their woman/female-experiences and expressions

Lucky to see the blossoming of new generations of women

Lucky to have the opportunity to share what I was held in ignorance and silence to and being left to manage on my own

Lucky to be me through and through and to be in full celebration of all of my Lucky Me womanhood self