For all the crazy fears our society has toward aging and all the ways we try to not look our age, I haven’t had one friend tell me they would like to go back to a younger age. Me neither. I cherish my increasing age because it provides gifts that far exceed those in my youth.
One of the best gifts is not taking myself so seriously anymore. Few things sound as horrible as returning to teenage angst and self-consciousness. Yikes! Sure, it might be nice to have that tight skin back, but then how much fun would an XLERATOR hand dryer be? Every time I use one, I delight in seeing what it does to my skin. Just think how much more fun it will be in 10, 20, or 30 years!
I’ve also enjoyed shifting into an older stage of parenting. No longer am I exhausted from baby-proofing my house, chasing after a toddler, and cutting up food into non-chokable bites. My only struggle involving young children comes whenever I see a young mother and feel compelled to tell her, “Oh, cherish these days! They go so quickly!”
(I haven’t done that yet, knowing that I often wanted to clobber those women when I received such comments back in the day.)
What I cherish now is being present to the young women my daughters are becoming.
I enjoy blasting and singing along to my favorite music in my Subaru, no longer caring how silly I look. I value the small creases in my face that represent the wisdom I have earned. I love having a sense of what my mom felt like as she approached her 50′s. It’s funny experiencing how quickly time flies, and I rarely fret over upcoming unsavory appointments or events because I know they come and go in a flash.
I’m grateful for every blessing that has come from the hard work I’ve done over the years – gone is the constant drive to gain the approval and validation of others, the tendency to apologize for being too much, and the pain from a hard childhood. I love my ability to validate myself. I love loving my family without so much baggage.
Most of all, I love discovering who I am and knowing that the best is yet to come.
For a related post, check out Jennifer Crow’s Aging, Schmaging. I also highly recommend everything Ram Dass has said and written regarding conscious aging. Here’s one of his videos (he starts speaking at 3:20):
