Aging Gracefully

As I sit here today, my back is killing me and my legs are sore.  Ten years ago, a bit of wallpaper hanging until after midnight would not have caused me to gobble down several Advil and lie down in the afternoon for a nap.  My 36-year old body, although not old per se, is definitely feeling the extra bending, shifting and constant up-and-down movements from last night.  It's times like these that I feel the years creeping up on me.  I'm healthy and relatively trim; most days my body and I function together like a well-oiled machine. And then, there are days like today.  Or how about the times I get off the couch after sitting for long periods of time and my body protests, just a bit, from stiffness.  I'm becoming that person who groans or grunts quietly when getting up after prolonged periods of time.  Maybe I should start scoping out the rooms in the local retirement home.

In all honestly, our bodies are aging from the time we are conceived.  For some women this is a huge deal.  They are forever "29", fight wrinkles like Armageddon has arrived, visit the plastic surgeon every now and then for a bit of work and cover every gray hair as soon as it appears.  I have never been one of those women.  Ask me my age and I'll proudly tell you; there's nothing to hide.  If you look closely, you can see the fine lines starting to form around my eyes.  I have sunspots on the backs of my hands.  My daughter even told me I had gray hair, but after a bit of research we discovered it was just the light picking up the blond strands mixed in with the brown (whew...thank goodness!).  These things don't really bother me.  I don't think they should be a source of dread or worry for any woman.

I'm not advocating laying out in the sun so that by the time you're 40 your skin looks like leather.  I'm not saying that you shouldn't use eye cream for those fine lines or slather on the sunblock to keep sun spots at bay. What I am saying is that those things are signs of a life well-lived and maybe it's time to be thankful for and embrace them. I talk about "embracing" things a lot, I know. But so often, we as women, focus so hard on changing things, camoflauging flaws, or meeting other people's ideas of beauty and femininity, that we fail to appreciate what we already have. 

So, how will I age gracefully?  I will use my eye cream at night, but not worry about the fine lines because they come from 36 years of laughing and smiling.  I will try to be better at applying sunscreen, but remember that the sunspot on my face is from riding with the sunroof open and music blaring; the spots on my arms from spending time with family and friends at the beach/pool.  Great times and wonderful memories.  I will not be ashamed of my stretch marks or slightly saggy boobs when I look in the mirror because they were given to me by the best two children a woman could ask for.  All of these things, and more, make me look my age.  Yet I would much rather have had the experiences and memories that caused those signs of aging than give them up for a perfect complexion or body. 

I think true beauty (and femininity) can be found by rejoicing in what you've lived through and embracing the memories - and maybe the scars - that came along the way.