BEAUTY, AGING AND MIDLIFE- PART 2

Another fabulous read for women is a book I found at Anthropologie, called BACKWARDS IN HIGH HEELS by Tania Kindersley and Sarah Vine.  It is an international bestseller, and I can see why! It is such a fun read!  It's irreverant and witty, as it addresses all of the issues we struggle with.  Here is just a sampling: love, food, career, men, health, dressing and shopping, motherhood, age, beauty, sex,  and more.  Because of my previous post on aging, I thought I would quote some of the pearls on that same subject but from this source, beginning with my favorite one:  "The term, 'anti-aging' is one of the more nonsensical of the modern age.  It's like saying anti-breathing or anti-the-planet-turning-on-its'-axis."  I mean, who are we kidding?  We are ALL aging, unless we're dead!
   "There is nothing wrong with beauty itself.....and nothing vain or shallow in wanting to make the best of what you were born with......but no one worth loving is going to care a lick that you look five years younger than your actual age or have no wrinkles.  The ones who love you properly will not give a damn that age is leaving the traces on your face.  What they care about is that you make them laugh so much that their stomach aches with it, and that they can call you up when they are caught in melancholy, and that you make the best chicken soup.  Those are the things which are the true beauty, the one that lasts, the one that means something.  They are the only beauty that actually matters."
   "Think of the old people that you really admire.  The octogenarians you most adore will still have curiosity, enthusiasm and jokes in abundance."  Personally, I am blessed to have three older women in my life whom I love and admire so much.  One is 93, one is 85 and the other is 81 and the word that comes to mind when I think of all of them both is spunk!  They are still grabbing life by the tail, wrinkles and all.  They are what I want to be when I grow up!!

"BEAUTY: WHAT'S AGE GOT TO DO WITH IT?"

If you've read any of my earlier articles, you will know that I am an avid fan of More Magazine, the magazine for "women of style and substance."  I was first introduced to it as a magazine for women over 40, so that's what drew me to it, because I doubt whether I have either style OR substance!  But I love the article I just finished reading on the plane.  (I read books when I go to bed, magazines when I travel and audiobooks when I'm in my car everyday!)
Judith Sills, Ph.d. makes a distinction between youth and being young.  "Youth is a life era, from birth to 30 something.  Being young is an attitude," and is something we should hold on to until we die!  She says that simple things like getting our nails done, our haircut (or letting it go silver!) and putting on some lipstick can make us more willing to go out into the world and connect with other people.  This is my favorite part when she is asked about wrinkles: "Stop thinking about yourself so much.  That doesn't mean you shouldn't do what you can to look great.  But once you've done that, stop looking at yourself and look out at the world.  It's where everything interesting and exciting is."  I so love that!
She also hates the term (as do I!) "age appropriate."  This only serves to confine women and connotes negative expectations of what we should do, wear or look like as we get older.  Phooey! (That's me talking, not her!)"'Age appropriate' never envisions older people having fun."  She ends with:  "The more invested you are in life, the less worried you are about what other people think."  Amen to that!  Aging to me is liberating!  I don't have to look like I'm 25 anymore, because I'm not!  I don't Botox, I don't wear Spanx and I wear my "good" jewelry and my bling everyday, because I don't like anyone, especially society, telling me that I have to subscribe to a certain way of being, because I'm middle aged. As one of my favorite characters- Popeye- used to say, "I y'am what I y'am!"

The Timekeeper Part 2

"We all yearn for what we have lost, but sometimes, we forget what we have."

TIME

I am listening to the best audiobook right now:  The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom.  I was hooked from the very first sentence, because it is read by a British man with the best voice and coolest accent!!  But the fictional story is so powerful!  I actually had to stop the car and write down some notes and I've only just begun!  Mitch tells us, his readers, to realize how much we keep time:  the year, the week, the day, the hour, our schedule, our dinnertime, when to meet, etc. and then HOW we keep track of time:  digital clocks, cell phone clocks, oven clocks, watches, etc.  Yet, time keeping is ignored by other species.  Dogs don't care if they're late for dinner, birds don't care if they're late flying somewhere.  "Man alone measures time.  Man alone chimes the hour and because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures.......of time running out."  I absolutely cannot wait to get into my car tomorrow and pick up where I left off!  (You would be amazed how fast you can listen to an audiobook, just by running your everyday errands, or going to and from work, in the car!)  Oh, and I saw the book in Costco  today, so if you can't listen to the audio, please pick up the paperback!  I'm sure I will be stopping the car to capture more pearls of wisdom, in a timely fashion!