On a recent shoot. Photo by my friend A who thinks this is a great photo of me. That's why I like her.
I don't mind signs of aging, and I don't mind aging either. I embrace it (mostly) and definitely do not miss the emotional roller coasters of my teens and twenties, although I do occasionally miss my flat stomach.
But those (sometimes shocking) moments of recognition are useful reminders not to let time get away from me without wringing everything I can from it. There's a quote from George Bernard Shaw I've always liked about wanting to be "...thoroughly used up..." at the end of one's life, although the second part of his quote "for the harder I work, the more I live" doesn't resonate so strongly since I would hope life would be so much more than the work I do. I wish I could find a college keynote address I remember reading a few years back where the speaker expanded on Shaw's quote, with his or her hopes for a life so well lived - spiritually, physically, mentally - that they would be thrown on a trash heap at its end.
When I recently made a sarcastic comment about my dry wrinkly knees and my no longer bouncy skin of youth, Sweetpea responded "But your skin means you're lucky and that you're grown up and have a child."
And isn't that the truth.
Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
~Mark Twain
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
~Mark Twain
I agree with your friend, it's a beautiful photo of you. My favorite words of widsome about age come from the movie The Guardian..."I mean if my muscles ache, it's because I've used 'em. It's hard for me to walk up them steps now, its 'cuz I walked up 'em every night to lay next to a man who loved me. I got a few wrinkles here and there, but I've layed under thousands of skies with sunny days. I look and feel this way, well cuz I drank and I smoked. I lived and I loved, danced, sang, sweat and screwed my way thorough a pretty damn good life if you ask me. Getting old ain't bad Ben. Getting old, that's earned."
ReplyDeleteI like the photo too. I don't mind aging either, but I know that feeling of looking at a picture and being hit with the "when did I start looking this old" feeling. But Sweetpea is right--it does mean you are lucky, and I like the quote above too.
ReplyDeleteWishing you many more wrinkles--that prove you have lived!
I find the thing about aging is that although our body may look a tad bit older, more wrinkly and a bit heavier in some people! I still feel young and my daughter keeps me young. What I really dislike is when my kids at school notice that the hall is filled with grad pictures and I have been 8 years at our school and they comment on whether or not it is me in the pics. I have to look at those everyday and it really makes me crazy sometimes. Anyway enough about me. K I think the picture is a good one of you. I do love the comment that Sweetpea made that touched my heart!
ReplyDeleteI like the picture as well. It's very pleasing and natural.
ReplyDeleteI have wrinkly lookin knees too! Does that make me lucky? :)
Oh do I hear you loud and clear! I swear I'm still in my 20's, but the face looking back at me is mid 40's! I keep telling myself that I've earned every single wrinkle and every single gray hair, but it still gives me a jolt some days. And what's with the "middle age spread"??? That has REALLY been bothering me lately. I need to go dancing every weekend like I used to, to get rid of it! *grin*
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