Letter From the Editor Women's Health Issue, May 2010

Since the beginning of time, women have been adept at gracefully juggling multiple things at once. A pioneer woman could bore child after child, milk the cows, wash clothes by hand and plow the garden while all 14 kids held onto her legs. Then she’d pluck a chicken, cook dinner, tuck the kids into bed and don some sexy pantaloons and seduce her man.

Barring the plow, plucking and pantaloons, not much has changed. Women today are still taking it all on. As a mother, daughter, caregiver, sister, writer, teacher, friend and lover I have more leading roles than Meryl Streep ever will.

On a typical day I could be taking a shamanic journey, playing ‘name that tune’ with my 87-year-old mom and her friends, planting an organic garden, groveling for an interview with the mayor, reasoning with a teenager, mowing the lawn and loving up my boyfriend. And that’s just in 27 minutes. (Just kidding, honey.)

I am a multitasking guru and the queen of continuous partial attention, as is most of my gender. Women are truly amazing creatures and I’m not saying that just because I am one. It’s a scientific fact. We are so talented at multitasking because we have big Corpus Collossums. No, those aren’t the latest smartphone devices, it’s the part of the brain responsible for multitasking. In fact, ours is 20% larger than our male counterparts. Sorry guys, sometimes bigger IS better.

That means we chick-ee-poos have up to 33% more nerve fibers increasing the exchange between the brain hemispheres, making us biologically superior for doing a variety of tasks at once. (And just so you know, fellows, reading and going to the bathroom at the same time does not qualify as multitasking.)

And, yes, it is a challenge to keep so many balls in the air at once and occasionally I pay for it. Sometimes my oatmeal gets scorched or the bathtub overflows and ruins the floor, but thank God, Buddha and Krishna that I teach yoga just so I can stay grounded enough to support this wonderful, compulsive behavior.

I’m so seasoned at this feminine form of juggling that while I was at my computer composing this letter I had four desktop windows open at once, writing multiple articles, continually updating my facebook status, ordering takeout, shopping online for eco fashions, catching the news on CNN, reading my horoscope, chatting with a wizard and instant messaging six people. But I was thinking of you the whole time. I promise!

Chicks Rule,

Lisa

Editor, Natural Awakenings Charlotte, NC Edition