(Yes, the essay is still A Work In Progress, welcome to my world!)
Being a woman whose latest love affair has just turned sour (Situation Vacant encore une fois) and having had an unpleasant and unexpected encounter with an early-morning mirror in full light the day before, I did wonder...
Until I reached 40 years of age I looked young and fresh.
Eight years of being a single parent and struggling to stay in the Rat Race took their toll on my girlish looks and now, in my 50's it seems that Time has not only caught up with me but overtaken me and is now running ahead with a nasty backward grin on its wrinkly face!
Should I consider Taking Drastic Steps?
Not, I hasten to add, a face lift, I have far better ways to spend my money than that!
Nor injections of cow-chemicals into my skin, I don't want to be frozen in time
but maybe I should swap my organic skincream for one of those expensive lotions that fills in the crack and smooths out the lines?
Maybe I should start to worry about my imperfections more?
I was still wondering when I went to bed
Why this obsession with one's age?
Why the constant steam of adverts that tell us
"Look ten years younger"
"Don't let your hands give away your age"
"Turn back the clock"
What's wrong with being proud to have lived 50+ years?
And why should society force me to be ashamed to admit it?
My son almost died before he had drawn his first breath...
My cousin, a beautiful, brilliant, wise mother, wife, friend and doctor, died at the age of 38...
My best friend Jeannie didn't reach her 55th birthday...
My father died at 57
I am grateful that I am still here
Happy to be alive
And not ashamed to admit that I have had 52 fabulous years, so far
And then Marja-Leena's comment to the previous post re the knee injury reminded me of something an American colleague once said to me, it went a little like this
"J. I can picture you arriving at the gates to heaven when your time has ended, with scars and bruises on your body, plenty of wrinkles and grey hairs that show your wisdom and character, a body that is not perfectly young and beautiful but one that bears the signs of a lifetime of amazing adventures, breathless, big blues eyes shining, skin glowing and with a huge smile that says "I Have Had A Ball, Thank You Lord!"
It was one of the nicest things a man has ever said to me
So, I will stick with my Kind To Animals creams and leave the chemicals and cattle alone
I will remain faithful to the genes that my parents passed down to me
I will not try to make myself look like something I am not
And I will continue to be thankful for life every day that I live it
I am ageing nicely, like a fine, very full-bodied wine, rich with the taste of the soil from which the vines of my ancestors blossomed, spiced by the adventures it has been my fortune to enjoy and mellowed by my wisdom and still very, very fizzy
And very happy to still be here....
To Life, Cheers!
20 comments:
Oh, don't you look lovely! Beauty always comes from within, and so does youthfulness and "fizz"!
Indeed! A lovely picture, especially your peaceful, calm, reflective expression.
Thank you Leslee, I am indeed full of fizz!
Kate, thank you too. Of course I was peaceful and calm, it was taken in Lapland and I had my Ragazzi close by...
I hesitated to post a picture of myself, until yesterday's realisation that beauty IS skin deep and the acceptance of who and what I am that I have aquired here in France...
Oh, you look just as beautiful as I imagined! Thanks for sharing your photo, so special too, taken in Lapland. I second every word you write here and join you in saying: To Live, Cheers!
Aw shucks Marja-Leena!
Interestingly, it is only in such photos that I succeed in looking nice, you should see me on an normal day! All the reason to spend as much time as possible in Lapland, methinks!
You are beautiful! I just found your blog yesterday and I'm slowly working my way through.
I really like your photographs, a life different from mine is so much fun to read about.
susan in spokane, wa usa
Wonderful post!!!!thank you!
Dear Mouse,
You look like someone to be reckoned with in every aspect of life.
Do not waste precious moments worrying about things that come with age or on people who diminish you by being with you.
Choose the company of those who are enthusiastic about life and who offer their friendship.
You will find that you will retain your "fizz" much longer.
I'm glad you posted your photo. It's a beautiful photo of a beautiful woman! All of us who are in our 50's ( or at least a lot of us ) struggle with these feelings - myself included! But then I see your photo and your beauty inspires me.
Dona
Susan. Welcome to the mousehole! And thank you for your kind comment. My life is about to take a whole new direction in the next few weeks...
Elaine. Thank you also
David. Hi Buddy! Wise words indeed.
Dona. Thank you, we are a special group of women, strong, confident, smart and happy to be ourselves. It's good to be this age in this time, isn't it? So many opportunities our mothers didn't have, so much to discover and explore and so much Life to live!
It is nice to see a photo of you. You look like someone I would like and it is great to have a face to put to the words.
I have a wonderful book on Finland and the Lapps you would like, it's called A Year in Lapland, Guest of the Reindeer Herders, by Hugh Beach. And I have an old one called Tent Folk of the Far North.
We live in snow country and last year had to shovel out our windows.
of course, you are only 52 years old if you live exclusively by the Gregorian calendar. If, however, you live beyond the disciplinary power of linear, standardized time, then "age" is another concept....
In Yoga, for example, age is measured by the flexibility of the spine.
Oh, you posted a picture!! :)
Hello Northshorewoman.
A nice concept although,my yoga practice has waned in the last two years but my spine is very flexible (all that stopping to smell the flowers) so I am a child
Hi Claudia!
Zuleme. Thank you. I have the book, it's great, I also have The Finnish epic that I hope, one day to read....
Mon chere, you are tres jolie and shall always be so! And I so agree that you are lit from within by a certain serenity.
Wow, I can finally see the beautiful person I suspected you are! No face lifts (or even skin smoothing creams) needed!
I just got back from a short vacation in DC, or I would have commented sooner!
Cheers to you and a happy happy life!
You are a lovely person.....just as I thought the outside reflects the inside! We are all ageing, true, but remember fine wine is best at a certain age!........Oh and don't forget to start wearing purple and grow old gracefully but totally disgracefilly and full if fizz! Remember life is not a rehersal!
So sorry to be late here, but how lovely to finally "see" you in your loveliness. I hope the serenity and warmth of this picture is something you will carry with you throughout and long after the move.
Loretta, bless you!
b. aw shucks!
Lucia, indeed, To Life!
Val. Purple is my favourite colour, I even have a purple skisuit, of course
Beth. Thank you, I am sure it will
To Everyone who left kind comments I send my thanks. I should have trusted that you'd all be so nice and found the courage to come out of the mouseholed sooner!
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