Monday Musing - Aging Gracefully or Gratefully?

 

This morning, as I put on my make up, I saw them. It appeared to be the beginnings of a road map, right under my eyes. How did that get there? Grabbing the thickest moisturizer in the cabinet, I applied it to my skin, but they did not go away. Evidently, the mirror had not been cleaned, so it received a good cleaning.  Looking in the clean mirror, the lines were still there. The glass was cleaned again, but the tiny road map remained. Okay, this is a bad mirror. It needs to be replaced, so I’ll try another. They were still there. I put my glasses on to get a closer look, and that was even worse. I made a mental note to talk to my eye doctor about those obviously defective glasses.

Standing in front of the defective mirror, wearing defective glasses, the realization hit me. My life has been stressful for the past 15 years.  Alzheimer’s took Daddy, we lost Gran, I raised a daughter and am happy to say that we both survived, along with all of the things we experience in life, all of these circumstances have worked together to create that road map. I have earned each of these little lines and should be displaying them as a badge of honor. Maybe a badge of courage, should I choose to wear my glasses while looking in the mirror.

These tiny lines are better than the alternative. I am a survivor and should be proud, instead of trying to hide those little road maps. These are not a map of where I am going, but a map of where I have been. Why would I want to erase them? I earned each tiny line. These lines are a part of the person that I have become, and I choose to accept them. What other choice is there?

Time and life will provide a few more of those little lines. The face in my mirror is not the one that was there 25 years ago. The person behind that face is not the same either, hopefully some important life lessons have been learned, and will not need to be re-learned. With those lines, hopefully some wisdom has come my way. There are some things that will not change. I will celebrate my 29^th birthday again this summer. Come on, you didn’t expect me to accept everything did you?