Recently I’ve noticed new, small changes to my body which have made me pause and consider. As in, think about the stance I always had on aging. ‘Oh it won’t bother me!’ said I, ‘Wrinkles are a sign that you have lived and laughed in your life, bring it on!’.
Hmm.
Yes well, they ARE. And I do still agree with what I’ve always spouted about aging gracefully and refusing to walk around with skin that looks like it’s been pumped full of liquid rubber or stretched tightly over a drum.
But I must confess there are moments nowadays when the mirror asks a lot of my pure intentions. More than I expected, to be quite frank. In these moments I find myself quietly raising a finger to pull the skin above my eyelids gently upwards “just to see” the difference it would make if I were to… (what? I don’t know!) get something done I suppose, to the slightly sagging skin that is now making its presence felt around my eyes.
It’s confronting, but quietly done because I don’t want anyone to spot me being so vain and frivolous (including myself).
Then there’s that favourite black evening gown hanging upstairs which I must finally acknowledge no longer suits me. Having worn sleeveless tops/dresses for most of my adult life, I am more than a little shocked by the change in my upper arms – when did the muscles start to hang from the bone like loose meat fillets?? And why can’t I make the bodice fit snugly like it always did? Nowadays it bites into my body in strange ways. Looser skin I guess, or something like that.
Geez.
Ah well, chances are I’ll never do much about any of it. I’m too chicken, too poor, a little bit too lazy and even principled on the topic to take any drastic measures but that doesn’t stop me being surprised I even considered it. When you get right down to it, I guess aging is difficult to accept no matter how ‘wise’ you’ve become. I’ve had to work my way through a fair few unexpected health challenges this past year (knock on wood) which shook the balance out of life for a while. Moving away from my private pyjama party on the sofa is a very welcome change let me tell you, with simple things like walking to the bus stop or going shopping for an hour finally back on the agenda. I’m hugely thankful for it.
And yet I can occupy my mind now and then with silly irritations about my skin losing elasticity. It’s too silly.
Maybe I need this little reminder to chill out a bit more.
I’m ready for a good year, I’ve waited and hoped for it so fingers crossed my friends and let’s all be a little easier, kinder to ourselves in 2016. Because life’s just too short for silly worries and irritations.So right now my eyes are looking pretty ok to me, and I’ll be damn happy to go out feeling fabulous in any evening dress, under my own steam this coming year. How’s that for starters!
It does come as a shock, doesn’t it? Or rather a series of small and not very pleasant surprises. I had a sort of picture of what I’d look like when I got old – good cheekbones, still, silvery hair and only fine wrinkles. In reality, everything seems to have gone south and look more like my Dad every time I look in the mirror. Sigh!
Haha… I am sure it is not that bad but you have made me laugh! 🙂 and yes, it does! All of a sudden you are a different version of yourself. In my head I feel the very same… Sigh here too.
Ha ha I just did a post on plastic surgery — my take being I’ve seen too many disasters to risk it — but your post could have been written by me. I do the same pulling the skin up thing in the mirror and think, it would be so easy. However, I’m told it’s not that easy, and my bank account laughs and laughs, so I remain principled (yeah, that’s what we’ll will call it).
Haha, I will go check yours out too. Well I always laughed at that scene with Meryl Streep in “It’s Complicated” where she goes to ask and ends up racing down the hall after hearing she would have a headache for six months. I guess we all, at some point, would consider it, but yeah… So expensive and not a good bet indeed if you see some ‘work’ done on people who clearly have more than enough cash to pay and still end up looking dreadful. So. Principled we stay. And graciously ourselves! 😉
Exactly my point. I don’t reference this specifically, but I will here — I saw a shot of Britney Spears in some show and she looked she’d had plastic surgery, some real tell-tale signs. Seriously, is she even 35 yet, and she looked like she was 45.
It’s just sad. What a screwed up life she has led. Very unenviable.
I will not have plastic surgery, my looks are the least of my worries, and I would MUCH rather spend the little spare money I have on books! That said, sometimes I walk by a mirror and think to myself “who is that old hag and how did she get in here?”. Oh well … just another stage of life … at least the mind still functions! (mostly)
Haha… Oh yes, I have those moments too! Hilarious really. But indeed, there are many other more important things in life. It is just a little bit of vanity now and then, rearing its head, and plastic surgery is and never will be a real option for me, but I wanted to play around with the idea, for fun.
Aha! Now I see why you like my ‘cheese’ quote. Yes, growing older really does bother most of us, no matter how many tiomes we tell ourselves that age doesn’t matter. I know all too well about the physical changes you describe. Although I may still feel thirty, the mirror tells me the truth. It has no feelings whatsoever! 🙂
Haha, so true. The worst is when I have taken good care to dress well, do my makeup as best as possible and then one hour later hop to the Ladies room to see a slightly different version of what I thought I looked like, glistening back at me… Years ago? Different story. Ouch. Oh well. Could be worse I know, and I am (generally) a happy person. I just felt it had to be put out there. Thanks for your nice visits! I feel a kindred spirit.
Mirrors should be banned from Ladies’ Rooms. I’m a lot older than you and I’ve come to accept what I look like now – but I still don’t like it! Thanks for the funny posts. I enjoyed reading them. 🙂
Agreed. You too, thanks for the lovely visit, so nice getting to know you. You have a wonderful energy, and a very friendly approach, so nice! Glad you like my posts, if I can make you laugh a little, I am delighted. I will continue to read more of yours too, it is getting late now so more tomorrow! 🙂
I’ll look forward to reading more. Right now, I’m off to bed! I need to finish the book I’m reading. Talk again soon… 🙂
Goodnight! Me too. Sleep well. 💤🌙💫
😀 😀
I think that getting old is the biggest practical joke ever. I still go Achhhhh! when I look into the mirror and see my mother’s face instead of the much younger one of mine that my mind still sees as “me”. We don’t grow older, just more experienced and hopefully wiser, in our brains and our hearts and that’s the practical joke. Our bodies begin to droop, sag and wrinkle while we’re still in our 20’s in our hearts and minds. The only nice thing is that my hair is turning a lovely silver, not dull gray, and my daughter tells me that many people her age in their 30’s are coloring their hair the exact same color as mine. So that makes me laugh: they are paying oodles of money for hair color that I earned and grew naturally 😀
Haha, oh yes this is very true!! Silver hair is beautiful (yay for you!!), even my daughter has hers dyed that shade, haha!! She adds in a touch of purple, it looks amazing on her. You are a lucky one with that, I hope to go the same way as my maternal grandmother had the same but so far it shows dull gray mostly so I am sticking to blonde highlights for now, haha! Gotta run, more later.
I used to have, once upon a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, natural copper hair, not ginger hair, but the kind of light brown hair with very shiny deep goldy-red shades to it. So I’m glad that my shiny hair is still there but it’s now primarily silver. I gave up coloring my hair about 12 years ago when I could never quite get my youthful copper color and I wondered what my own natural hair color looked like then. So I stopped because I loved the silver 😀 What color and kind of hair did your grandmother have?
Oh that sounds beautiful Genie, both your original shade and now the lovely silver! Good for you, “claim it”! Haha. 😉😉💃 My grandmother also had beautiful silver hair, so I was hoping for the same and there is one silver patch at the front of hairline (if I allow it, haha), but also a mix of dark blonde and plain old grey further back so for now… Covering up! 😂😂
Oh then I will bet your hair will eventually turn a lovely silver too like your grandmother’s! Right now it’s probably going through that in-between stage, like when trees start to turn colors in the autumn but there is that brief moment when only some have changed but the majority are still green. And then, almost overnight, they all turn into a beautiful explosion of brilliant golds, and reds, and yellows!
Haha, I hope so!! 🙂 💃💃 Gotta keep trying right? 🙂
Right! XOXOXO!