Aging, how do you take it?

There are many events & experiences in life that are delightful & cause for celebration. A coming together of families, cultures & traditions due to marriage. A new & intoxicatingly chunky baby. The smell of Krispy Kreme glazed sugar bombs as they’re coming off the line. The first whiff of what is undoubtedly a mind-blowing Cabernet. The sound of your kids laughing & especially if its over a joke you just told that they actually got & didn’t roll their eyes over.

Aging is a part of life & is often a thing to be dreaded, maligned & downright feared. The unknown is generally scary to us as a society. Will I have enough to retire on? How will my health or the health of my partner be? Can I stay in my home until the end? And for women in menopause, that’s a whole other ball of wax. Relevancy, ridiculously & ever iterating hormones, a body & face you don’t recognize in the mirror, oh my. I could go on & on with the myriad of issues that this population goes through. Lastly, we’ve all been witness to the stereotypes of seniors. Walking devices, senility, a lack of fashion, crankiness. These aren’t reserved for those who have qualified for AARP, so why do we perpetuate them? I know a few who look better in their 70s than some do in their 50s. And everyone is capable of screaming “Get off my lawn!” So there.

Because we are a people of products, potions & purchasing, the “anti-aging” merchandise out there is vast. And vastly infuriating. I’m all for whatever it is that you believe you need to do to look & feel your best. Botox? Go for it. Covering the greys? I’ll shop for hair color with you. The avalanche of items all designed to preserve, reserve or enhance is staggering. Gratitude for them is there, but much of this stuff is unrealistic, spendy as heck or just plain unnecessary. Its so easy to allow ourselves to think we need it all & that if we don’t take the time to improve our already gorgeous to the core selves that we aren’t doing it right.

And let’s think about the phrase & intention of “anti-aging” for a minute. Our bodies are designed to change as the years go by & how it happens is tied primarily to genetics. Healthy living, minimizing stress & having a good amount of fun can certainly help. As one who has always looked young, I dreamt of having hands that looked like my grandmother’s: experienced, nuanced, strong & mostly, USED. I have them now & while I sometimes have to remind myself that they belong to me, I got exactly what I wanted: a body that iterates naturally. You do you, I’ll do me.

With more people than ever before crossing the 5th, 6th & beyond decades, how’s about we celebrate the lines, creases, furrows, experience, wisdom, endurance, stories, grace, resilience, courage, strength, responsibility & all the other goodness that comes from being on this planet for a long while. Life isn’t only grand for those who can still touch their toes, know every tech platform or do the latest TikTok challenge. Lets not forget the people who raised them, the badasses that they are.

And because I just love to find the humor in all things, I’ll just throw this one out there for kicks: hair in places it wasn’t a decade ago or heck, even a day ago. Ladies, check your ears & if you don’t already possess tweezers, head to Walgreen’s, stat. And because practicality in no way means defeat, add a heating pad, ice pack, reading glasses, stretch bands, lumbar pillows & Listerine strips to that cart. The latter isn’t because of age but rather the wisdom that for some actually coincides with getting older than you were the day before.

You’re welcome.