Sunday, October 14, 2012

Wrinkles, Wings, Genes, and Stock

Sometime ago, I saw a new way to make one look 10 years younger. You braid three strands of hair tightly on each side of your head, Then you pull half of your hair in the back onto the top of your head. Then you take a piece of the elastic with a small comb on each end of it. You take one end of the elastic and place the comb tightly into the braided hair.Then you bring the other comb around to the other side and place the comb into the other braid. Once you do that WALLA! You look ten year younger.  Really? Frankly seeing the women who had tried it, I didn’t see any difference; some even had a pained expression on their face.

The genius woman who came up with this hair brain idea did so because her son was getting married and plastic surgery for her was too expensive. Can you believe that?  Has she not seen her friends in 10 years and wanted to impress them? But I digress.

Seeing that breakthrough for regaining youth, I had to laugh.  I looked in the mirror and I laughed harder. I looked at all my wrinkles and gave them all names. The crows feet around my eyes are called smiles, big grins and hearty laughs.  The lines in my face are a bit more serious. I call them lines of wisdom after experiences of heartbreak, loss, and just plain getting old, but I learned something with every experience.  My face portrays the real me not a plastic person. All the wrinkles portray different stages of my life that make me feel real. 

I’m 71, not 41 or even 51.  I see and feel changes in my once young body every day.  For instance, have you ever noticed a lot of us women up in years rarely wear sleeveless blouses or dresses?  Those three-quarter sleeved blouses and dresses have a specific purpose…they cover our newly acquired wings in the upper part of our arms. But, I must tell you they carry a concealed weapon too.  Should we be held-up at gunpoint and told to raise our hands high, all we have to do is to quickly wave, and that person is likely to be slapped silly. So, when you see an older woman raise her arm to wave at someone, you better duck if you are near her. 

Speaking for myself only, I no longer wear 3 inch heels. I fall enough wearing flats. I still like to see younger women wear them if they like. I wore them for many years and loved wearing them. I rarely wear dresses anymore either. I can’t seem to find one that doesn’t show every bulge that has attached itself to my body for a lot of years now.  I don’t wear a size 6 anymore, it’s more like a size ---never mind, but my dress size is in the double digits, but  not a 10 and that’s as much as I will tell you.   I stopped wearing dresses when I once asked my husband, “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?”  All I will tell you is that I didn’t like his answer, Bless his honest heart.

I don’t wish insult anyone. I see women my age every day who are thin, have few to no wrinkles and they are beautiful and are blessed with good genes. But, I see women like me every day too, and they are beautiful too, each in their own way. We are blessed because we come from good stock. Now for me, you may have to look for my beauty. Hopefully you will see it coming from the inside, because you *ain’t* gonna to see it on the outside.

The real beauty is that I’m a Daughter of the King and He loves me.  He understands the pain that I have had, the joys that I have, and He has given me a sense of humor that doesn’t allow me to take myself too seriously.

Ann