Vitamin D - the new wonder drug?

In December on my annual visit to my doctor they checked my Vitamin D level as part of the routine lab work. Turns out my levels were quite low. In an article I read the other day people of northern European descent (like me) have evolved over time to have lightened skin. The pale skin allows us to absorb more Vitamin D from sunlight.

So my doctor prescribed a massive dose of Vitamin D which I took once a week for 8 weeks. I was amazed when I noticed my mood brightening over those weeks. No more doom and gloom from the dreary/dark winter days of the Pacific Northwest. My doc said that we don't get enough of the "right" kind of sun in the winter.

So now that the 8 weeks are over I'm taking 2000 IU's a day. Amazing the difference!

My question is... Is Vitamin D the new wonder drug? Is that what all of us in the northern climes need in the winter?

Hot Flash?

After swimming at the YMCA this morning I thought I'd try out the sauna. It only took about 5 minutes before I had a simulated "hot flash". Now I'm not even 52 years old yet (next month) and I'm not quite at the point where I should be expecting a hot flash. But this was quite convincing.

I had one friend several years ago describe a hot flash as a power surge, hmmmm, not so bad??? or was that just her way of brushing it off?

I think it very interesting that all of us women of certain age go through "the change" in such a different way. Different ages (some as young as 40), different symptoms... some of them mild or some like my mom who had severe cycles, hot flashes and night sweats.

So is this something to dread.... or something to look forward to? A transition to a new phase in our lives?

Family

I was blessed with a good family. I don't mean good breeding, I mean good people.

No matter what I've done in my life, 3 marriages, 2 divorces; joining the Navy and moving several thousands of miles away; doing the "untraditional" by choosing construction as my career - my family has always been accepting. I've heard stories from friends of their parents/siblings, trying to influence them. In everything from choosing their mate, deciding where to live, what school to go to, how many kids to have (or not have any), where to go on vacation, what to have for dinner. My family has never tried to influence me - when I divorced my philandering husband at 30 they didn't tell me I should stick it out to make it work. When I divorced my depressed and anti-social (2nd) husband at 40 they didn't try and tell me he'd get over it.

I say all this because I have a friend who just married and will probably be going through a divorce shortly. She made a poor choice in the man she chose. And her family has been, all through her life, scathing in their disapproval of some of her choices.

So I wonder, if you don't have a good and supportive family... do the friends you choose become your family? Do your friends make a good substitute for the family you didn't get?

Gratitude

I used to think that life was a struggle, so many things happened to me, good and bad. And I wondered why these things were happening (mostly the bad). Maybe it wasn't that life was a struggle, but that I struggled with life. I was married twice and neither worked out (being simplistic here I know); I worked my way up in my career to being a project manager for a major mechanical contractor in Seattle but because I did not have the educational background I never seemed to make enough $$. As a single parent of 2 teenagers my salary flew out the window as soon as I was paid.

But then about 7 or 8 years ago the concept of gratitude started to become more and more important to me. Instead of always worrying about what I didn't have, I started thinking about what I did have. What a revelation!

There is so much abundance in this world, if only we adjust our expectations. I have come to expect very little, yet I've been given so much.

Instead of looking at everything that has happened in my life as "why me" - I now thank God/the universe for putting those lessons in my life. Because they've made me who I am. They may not have been easy, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

I accept the abundance with gratitude.

Spiritual or Religious

I grew up in a traditional household, Lutheran church on Sunday with the whole family; Vacation Bible School in the summer for 2 weeks; confirmation classes. Our minister was a mean old man who didn't seem to like kids and certainly not teenagers. Maybe scared me off...?

I started questioning the Christian faith in high school. Probably after I tried the Young Life movement and found it NOT to my liking. The people seemed too phony. Then I took a world religion class in high school and my eyes opened up.

All I could think is how could so many people in the world be wrong and people who believe in Christianity be the only ones who are right?

When I joined the Navy you had the option to list your religion on your dog tags. I chose to put "No Religious Preference" on mine. That about summed it up for 15 years, till I was about 35.

I tried going to church at various times in those years but it just seemed to me that the people were unfriendly and hypocritical.

When I hit my mid-thirties I started reading, everything and anything about re-incarnation, past lives. So much information. It transformed me. I started to see the world in a different light. So many things happened to me to re-affirm my beliefs.

I see myself now as a spiritual person. I don't go to church regularly. And I don't understand people who say that you have to believe in an organized religion in order to be spiritual.