Positively Ageing
Positively and absolutely, that's all ageing is - Life unfolding, year by year.
(And you can take this statement directly from the old mare's mouth...
er-r-r...
that would be mine actually.
) Time doesn't really go faster, or slower as we often suspect - it just happens at its own inevitable pace.
And all the resistance and/or denial in the world cannot change the outcome.
All living things are born and live - and age and die.
So? Such a shame that so many otherwise intelligent and kindly people treat their bodies (and more importantly, their innermost selves) with such deep disrespect and insensitivity.
How sad they can't hear their personal spirit crying out to them the words of the popular song - 'What about Me? It isn't fair.
I've had enough, now I want my share.
Can't you see I want to Live? But you just Take more than you Give.
' It's so painfully true.
So many of us deny the innate beauty of human existence, choosing instead to make constant value judgements based on perceived beauty - of face and body shape; hair colour and style; race and colour; social and business standing; monetary worth, etc.
, etc.
Can't we see that all that worrying and posturing and striving to be other than our own true selves, is the major cause of all the problems we see in the mirror? What has been achieved, apart from more wrinkles (starting the cycle once again), and contracting the deadly disease of dis-ease or unease? Isn't this the most pointless and useless waste of what could be a journey of wonder and appreciation of each moment, as Life unfolds? I'm heading towards my 7th decade in just a few years, and so I can speak with knowledge and experience of how this end of Life is for me - and I wish it could be the same for more of those whose lifespan is somewhere behind mine.
For me, these 'twilight years' shine brightly, despite the aches and pains that give me daily reminders of a life well-lived.
See how you can look back at what has gone before, gracefully accepting that today is the medal of honour you wear that shows you have 'been there - done that'? The slowing down brings unexpected benefits, if you can just look past the fact that most things take longer to do.
The exception to this 'lengthened process', for me, is that I am suddenly writing faster and more copiously...
and hopefully more skilfully than at any other time in my life.
I've found a freedom that I never experienced before, and I feel it comes from just 'being' in the here and now, 'living in the present' as the catch cry of today suggests.
I am seriously doing it all for me alone, whilst simultaneously trying to meet the standards required of my various internet 'publishers'.
I find I have also discovered my personal comfort zone of genre and style of writing, instead of always trying to 'be' like someone else.
It's such a satisfying thing to be myself and accept myself, warts and all, so totally.
I find I am enough...
and that is quite fantastic.
And on the original question of ageing, here again, I find great comfort and satisfaction in the fact that my silvery hair matches my wrinkles and chins, and some of the more seriously sagging spots.
They've all just happened gradually over the years, and as a result, cause little comment or attention.
It's nice to be 'real', I find.
No surprises for anyone here - unlike two instances of ladies close to me and mine, who dyed their hair black for years, then became disenchanted with the price and process, and suddenly went 'au naturel' - and, to the shock of themselves, and all around them, suddenly found they were pure white underneath! The wrinkle department took a nosedive as a consequence.
Ohh-h-h! That's a lot to handle, in one lump sum, as it were.
Perhaps the most sobering but realistic thought comes from The Bible - Ecclesiastes 5:15 - 'Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.
' A final piece of advice, maybe? Try harder to be grateful that you were able to 'wear out and NOT rust out' as my dear Mum would often say determinedly about her latter years.
She 'wore out' at 87 - not a bad innings for a lady born with only half a kidney operating (unbeknown to anyone for more than two-thirds of her life), who went on to successfully give birth five times, and survive a number of operations and an implant...
AND outlive a son, a grandson, and a great-grandson! You see - once again it's 'all in the mind' - and - 'if you don't mind...
it don't matter'.
Christine
(And you can take this statement directly from the old mare's mouth...
er-r-r...
that would be mine actually.
) Time doesn't really go faster, or slower as we often suspect - it just happens at its own inevitable pace.
And all the resistance and/or denial in the world cannot change the outcome.
All living things are born and live - and age and die.
So? Such a shame that so many otherwise intelligent and kindly people treat their bodies (and more importantly, their innermost selves) with such deep disrespect and insensitivity.
How sad they can't hear their personal spirit crying out to them the words of the popular song - 'What about Me? It isn't fair.
I've had enough, now I want my share.
Can't you see I want to Live? But you just Take more than you Give.
' It's so painfully true.
So many of us deny the innate beauty of human existence, choosing instead to make constant value judgements based on perceived beauty - of face and body shape; hair colour and style; race and colour; social and business standing; monetary worth, etc.
, etc.
Can't we see that all that worrying and posturing and striving to be other than our own true selves, is the major cause of all the problems we see in the mirror? What has been achieved, apart from more wrinkles (starting the cycle once again), and contracting the deadly disease of dis-ease or unease? Isn't this the most pointless and useless waste of what could be a journey of wonder and appreciation of each moment, as Life unfolds? I'm heading towards my 7th decade in just a few years, and so I can speak with knowledge and experience of how this end of Life is for me - and I wish it could be the same for more of those whose lifespan is somewhere behind mine.
For me, these 'twilight years' shine brightly, despite the aches and pains that give me daily reminders of a life well-lived.
See how you can look back at what has gone before, gracefully accepting that today is the medal of honour you wear that shows you have 'been there - done that'? The slowing down brings unexpected benefits, if you can just look past the fact that most things take longer to do.
The exception to this 'lengthened process', for me, is that I am suddenly writing faster and more copiously...
and hopefully more skilfully than at any other time in my life.
I've found a freedom that I never experienced before, and I feel it comes from just 'being' in the here and now, 'living in the present' as the catch cry of today suggests.
I am seriously doing it all for me alone, whilst simultaneously trying to meet the standards required of my various internet 'publishers'.
I find I have also discovered my personal comfort zone of genre and style of writing, instead of always trying to 'be' like someone else.
It's such a satisfying thing to be myself and accept myself, warts and all, so totally.
I find I am enough...
and that is quite fantastic.
And on the original question of ageing, here again, I find great comfort and satisfaction in the fact that my silvery hair matches my wrinkles and chins, and some of the more seriously sagging spots.
They've all just happened gradually over the years, and as a result, cause little comment or attention.
It's nice to be 'real', I find.
No surprises for anyone here - unlike two instances of ladies close to me and mine, who dyed their hair black for years, then became disenchanted with the price and process, and suddenly went 'au naturel' - and, to the shock of themselves, and all around them, suddenly found they were pure white underneath! The wrinkle department took a nosedive as a consequence.
Ohh-h-h! That's a lot to handle, in one lump sum, as it were.
Perhaps the most sobering but realistic thought comes from The Bible - Ecclesiastes 5:15 - 'Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.
' A final piece of advice, maybe? Try harder to be grateful that you were able to 'wear out and NOT rust out' as my dear Mum would often say determinedly about her latter years.
She 'wore out' at 87 - not a bad innings for a lady born with only half a kidney operating (unbeknown to anyone for more than two-thirds of her life), who went on to successfully give birth five times, and survive a number of operations and an implant...
AND outlive a son, a grandson, and a great-grandson! You see - once again it's 'all in the mind' - and - 'if you don't mind...
it don't matter'.
Christine
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