I’m not old. Yet.
I’m not young either, and for that I’m thankful. I hated my younger years.
Life kicked me in the head. More than once.
I find myself trying to “make it up” to my inner child sometimes.
It doesn’t really work.
I remember the lessons I learned, I’m amazed by what I endured and I move on to be the best person I can be. I let those years shape me in marvelous ways.
I’ll still try to make it up to my inner child now and then though. Just because it’s fun to be good to myself.
But I’m not old. Yet.
I have a young person in my life who keeps throwing out the world OLD and I hate it. Really, really HATE it.
Not because I fear growing old but because it makes me feel like a cast-off. Like he’s just waiting for me to keel over. Like because I’m no longer young that I’m to be tossed aside. Ignored.
I won’t be tossed aside and I dare you to try to ignore me.
It’s the way our society works it seems – if you aren’t young, firm, thin and beautiful then you aren’t worth much notice.
Heck, that even goes for the young women who aren’t “perfect” little magazine models.
And it’s an idea that sucks!
I’m here. I’m 48. I’m heavy and my hair is white. Don’t want to look at me? Think I’m not worth your time?
It’s your loss.
Personally, I admire older women, women with scars, women who have survived something.
Childbirth, abuse, wars, disease, and all of the other things that happen as we survive hardship and become rather bad ass to the core.
Have you ever realized that it’s the truly old women who have a sort of bad ass center?
They have SEEN something, survived, endured much and gone on to tell about it.
That is, if you’ll stop admiring youth and beauty long enough to listen.
I don’t mind getting older. I’m a tough bird. While my life is really, really good these days I know that I’ve still got some bad to live through. That’s just the way it is.
The only difference is that now I realize that living through the bad won’t kill me. It makes me tougher. More bad-ass.
Or BADASSICAL as I say.
Actually, in stead of being angry when I’m called old I should just tell this person that I haven’t earned the right to call myself old quite yet.
I’m not quite bad ass enough to have earned the title OLD.
But you wait and see, this young person in my life is going to find out some day just how BAD ASS an OLD LADY can really be.
I have found some truly inspiring people on the web in recent months who are determined to help the rest of the world see the beauty and power in the “imperfect” women of the world.
- Jade Beall has a photography book out called The Bodies of Mothers where she photographs and does not photoshop the bodies of women who have brought other little humans into the world. You can find out more on her Facebook Page.
- I have long been a fan of Advanced Style and the beautiful (and often badassical) women who are photographed there.
- And Elizabeth Gilbert wrote an essay on her Facebook page In Praise of the Inner Crone.
I hope you will check them out and start looking forward to cultivating that bad ass OLD lady core.
I know you’ve got it in you.
And I forgot to say that it is silly for people to make other feel old or tease about aging, it happens to ALL of us. Hee hee! We all had/have our eras, we all go through the process, we all take our turn!
Every day were are a day YOUNGER than we will be tomorrow, it’s all about embracing our youth, no matter what age. Even though our bodies age, we can keep our minds fresh as long as we have a positive attitude and are always open to NEW things and ideas! 48 is nothing! When we are 60, we’ll be like, “Remember when we were 48? We were so young then!” xoxoxo to you, Vicki!
I agree that 48 is nothing. I always think that I’m lucky that I got to live this long. So many people don’t.
It’s a privilege!
One that I’m thankful for every single day.
You always inspire me to dig deeper for the positive things in life Kathy! 🙂
I just turned 61 2 weeks ago, mentally i do not feel old, but unfortunate physically i have felt old since i was 29.
health problems can do that to a person sometimes, but I look at it this way. I am finally catching up to the way my body feels, but i have a long way to go. my body feels like it’s 102 at least,but my brain still feels like i am in my 20’s, so that is what i try to live my life by. oh, i have the occasional feel sorry for myself day, but after that i am up and roaring to go. i have a lot of friends that say they want botox or a face lift. i say, ‘just let your body grow old gracefully.
that’s all you can do, because once you get those things done, eventually everything is going to fall back to it’s original spot and then your skin is going to be sagging and then what are you going to do?”
just let nature take it’s course. real beauty is more on the inside anyway, than the outside.
It’s inspiring to me Karen that you choose to stay young mentally even though your body copped out on you. Keep it up! 🙂
Soon to be 64 here. 48?! THAT’S NOT OLD. I’d take 48 back in a minute. Don’t buy into the media nonsense that anything over 35 is old. A family member use to say, “You won’t be any younger than this!”
I love it Lettie. Thanks for the comment. 🙂
Thank you, Vicki, for putting this together and saying it so very well!
Hi Vicki,
I’m not old either, 66 beautiful years. I’ve learned that what people think of me is none of my business. I love my inner child like way. I love my creative side. As long as I have breathe I will continue to live everyday full of joy that passes understanding. I love living on the edge. You are not old, you are a marvelous, creative, joyful women.
I’ve often used that phrase myself, “what you think is none of my business and what I think is none of yours”.
It’s fun to be in a place where we are much more comfortable with who we are. Isn’t it? 🙂
I’ve often said that I pity the fool who picks on older people, There’s a lot of history there that you just can’t see at first glance. My DH doesn’t move as fast as he used to and has put on a bit of weight, but he’s still a third degree black belt instructor. I was assaulted when I was much younger, and took some serious self defense training to prevent it ever happening again. I can barely walk, but I can do some serious damage with a walker or a cane. Or a butter knife, for that matter. Don’t mess with what you may think are weaklings!
Remind me to be extra nice to you and hide the butter knives. 🙂
I learned to throw knives by throwing screwdrivers, so you might as well hide everything! LOL 😉