You think I’m facetious?! Not! Turn on your TV and you’ll see someone hawking this cure or that approach or a ‘you’ll look years younger…’ What is with this? Why the overwhelming emphasis on youth or becoming younger? What’s wrong with having wrinkles? I think they show amazing resilience, a kind of – look what you’ve achieved! While wrinkles don’t always mean greater wisdom, they do represent an achievement.
You do appreciate that ‘age’ is an achievement. Wisdom is a far greater one but the mere fact that you are the age you are is a testimony to how you’ve weathered the storms of life. Storms are a fact. We all face them, but it’s how we get through them that marks us. Our attitude is the single greatest determinant of our ‘health’. Two quick questions to illustrate my point: 1- when you are out walking do you look down or up as you walk? and 2- when you wake in the morning is there typically a smile or a frown on your face? Attitude.
I said that I worked hard for the wrinkles. Absolutely! I have had to learn and sometimes relearn lessons that allow me to not just go through the motions but to engage life and all it brings. You can’t be so afraid of potential problems that you miss the joys that also present themselves. Yes there are hurts, yes there are mistakes, yes you are taken advantage of … but there are also peaks of personal achievements, there are times of great fun with others, there are moments of creativity that sparks your next adventure. Yep… it’s all about attitude, yours.
Wrinkles come. You really can’t put them off indefinitely so embrace them. Allow them to also show you new paths, new people, new. Wrinkles come in stages so when one appears – greet it. Then when it is joined by others, it won’t bother you. It would be far worse if all the wrinkles displayed themselves in one gigantic fell swoop. Wrinkles indicate achievement, a kind of triumph over age. They’re like friends that were lurking below the surface but decided to come out and play with you. Yup… attitude.
… but what do you think?
