Day to Day happenings in my life

Beauty in aging

591 words

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Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum  (E) This is the forum where blog prompts will be posted for the Blogging Circle of Friends. #1901904 by Lyn's a Witchy Woman

How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.” -John Burroughs

Let this quote about aging inspire your entry today.

I’ve found myself commenting on the ravages of old age lately. I suppose that’s only natural as one sees those same aging affects each day in the bathroom mirror. It saddens me though to see the movie and music idols of my youth, those stunning women and strong handsome men, now just fragile, unrecognisable images of their former selves.

With age comes wisdom, though in the imparting of that wisdom those younger ones in our lives take it with a pinch of salt. They’re probably too kind to say what they’re actually thinking, wondering how we could possibly know what they’re going through.

So what, if anything, can be good about aging? Yes, leaves grow old beautifully as the quote suggests, but can it be said of humans? The cosmetic and beauty industries make millions out of our insecurities selling the idea that age can be beaten or delayed.
I admire people who are so comfortable in their skin as to not give a hoot about how they look, although many, men in particular, take that to the extreme. I often sit having a coffee at a cafe and people watch. The thought that mostly passes through my mind as I watch the vast variety of people, is that we all started life with the perfect body, a flawless canvas with which to do with as we choose. Yet many of us abuse it throughout our lives.

So if there is beauty to be found in the aging leaf, where can it be found in human beings? Maybe it’s the beauty of spirit many older people develop in later years.
Lines, wrinkles and sagging flesh have been portrayed by artists throughout history as having a kind of beauty. Life drawing classes prefer the fuller figure, giving the artist more interesting contours to draw than the flat stomached counterparts. Although having said that a flat stomach is one I’d willingly swap my roundness for.
I personally wouldn’t mind all the outward crumbling of my body if I could retain the energy and suppleness of youth, with no pain. With age comes pain and that’s what I find the worst part.
Up to being aged 75 I thought I’d cracked this growing old stuff. I could walk, climb hills, hop from rock to rock over streams without even thinking I might slip and fall. In five years I’ve lost so much mobility I see myself as a different person altogether. So I’m finding it difficult to see the beauty in old age although when I began to write this blog I thought I would discover something positive I could say.
Having said that I really ought to end on a positive note and to find some light in the darkness. 🤔
Okay! I’ve developed an even sharper sense of humour than I already possessed all my life. I’ve come to the realisation that life is a joke. I’ve worried and had sleepless nights over all the sad and difficult times throughout my life and things either got better or worse but it had nothing to do with my worrying. Things happen, nothing stays the same and problems get resolved one way or another. And at the end of the day, life is short, and after I’m gone it will carry on without me.
I’ve learned to accept and there has to be a sort of beauty in that.