Saturday, April 16, 2011

Owning My Age

Oprah has a blurb here about Getting older and how women are handling it. I'm officially 40-something in June. It seems that once you cross over the big-0 threshold (whether you're 20, 30, 40, 50), it's irrelevant what's in the middle and it's just something.

I had a hard time facing 40, and it was because I had set 40 as a goal for myself. When I'm 40, I'll have this.. When I'm 40, I won't be doing this.. When I'm 40, I'll look like that.. It was hard to face because I hadn't delivered on the goals and felt like it was a deadline I missed.

However, it's just a matter of keeping the same dreams and extending your goals. It's not as if you fall off the earth at that point. When I was 20, I thought life ended after you got married. What a shock it was after I got married to realize you keep waking up day after day. That's the same thing with the 40's. You have more days to do more!


I've made some crazy resolutions now.
Wear more skirts & dresses. I've always looked young, so I always dressed more maturely to be taken seriously. I always opted for classic looks, but more conservative. Now, I'm leaning towards more trendier options and be more stylish. After my daughter was born, I stayed away from my favorite skirts because it just seemed she should be the one wearing the mini skirts, not me.

I know realize that I'll be 50 in no time at all, and I will regret that I did not wear more skirts in my 30s and 40s. If I could save one regret down the road, let this be the one.


Skincare is for real. I love wrinkles on men and women. It's soft, it's natural and it shows their battles. My mom's wrinkles show her struggles with health. My grandmother's arms were fleshy wrinkles that extended into soft hugs.

However, I've got a little kid. I don't want to be grandma just yet. So, I'm fastidious now on the creams and lotions and cleansers. It's bizarre, but some of these things do work!I'm still trying to find the difference between the $50 moisturizer and the $3.99 Nivea.

I'm fighting the biggest wrinkle between my brow. I realized most of it is due to stress at work. I refuse to let my clients leave a stamp on my face! So, I have to remind myself to not frown so much.

Health is for real. I had some bizarre health activity last year. I went to general physician, specialists and lots of tests. They all came back that I was healthy. This didn't make sense. I was so determined that this was not normal activity for me, and there had to be something wrong. Finally, I listened to the last doctor who said what the first doctor said 6 months prior : I'm getting older and physical changes happen. It's not the same body you had 10 years ago. It took me some time to wrap my head around this. I'm too young to settle into "well, time to get old and fat." Please. I'd like to do some of these runs this summer. I've accepted and realize I have to kick exercise up by 10 notches. Stay with 1 glass of wine, rather than 2. There's no quick pill or short answer. There's never been.

Overall, I'm so grateful for having the healthy reports come back. It pains me to see friends on Facebook talk about surgery or chemotherapy.We have to enjoy every moment we have in this body of ours.

2 comments:

J.Doe said...

I'm sure your still a beautiful woman whethet you have a little wrinkle on your brow or not. I think women in general are their own harshest critics.
You'll always be young - and I'm not just saying that because I'm older.
Wear skirts and dresses and be content about it.
That's great that your health is good - that's what counts because just like your friends said last year 'age is just a number"

J.Doe said...

Oops - you're. I probably need to use spellcheck but I'm too lazy.