A young person asked me how I felt about being old. I was taken back some, for I do not think of myself as old. However, after pondering over her question, my reply was as follows.
I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body!  I sometimes despair over my body, the wrinkles, dark circles eyes, not so firm butt. I'm sometimes saddened by that old person that lives in my mirror but I don't agonize over those things for long.
I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a much flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself and less critical of myself.  I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating ice cream or for not making my bed or for buying that silly treasure that I didn't need but looks so awsome in my yard!
I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging. 
Whose business is it, if I choose to read or play on the computer til 4 AM and sleep til noon! I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 70s, 80s and 90s and if I wish, I will weep over a lost love. 
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body and will fish of the local dock if I choose, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. For they too, will get old. I know I am sometimes forgetful but there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, when a child sufferes or when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? A heart never broken is a pristine and sterile heart and will never know the joy of being imperfect. 
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.
As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've earned the right to be wrong.
I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become.
I am not going to live forever but while I am still here, I will not waste time wondering on what could have been or worrying about what will be and I will eat dessert every single day if I feel like it!
I hope that in reading the above, that you will give yourself permission to enjoy getting older and see it as an exciting and wonderful time, full of the freedoms we all long for. That it no longer matters what anyone thinks and that you don't need to justify yourself to anyone but you! Acceptance of yourself, comes first and foremost. It is only then that we all find true happiness. 
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| The Beauty of Getting Older! |
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