Mirror, mirror at the The Marsh Harbour Inn on Bald Head Island.
This bathroom has WAY better light than the bathrooms in my old house. I see in gory detail how much I’ve aged. The wrinkles. The dark circles. The age spots. Sometimes, I am astounded.
And so in a place I love the most, I gaze at myself in my worst light, at least on the outside.
Is it best to note the effects of aging? Breathe it in? Get it?
Or is it better to ignore, to not care, to float through these later years without any concern over wrinkles?
I meet women who don’t seem to give a flip. I read of others who go to great lengths (and pain and money) to try to maintain their youth.
Check out this article on “Beauty for Life: 6 Steps to Accepting Aging” from the Oprah website and this article from WebMD on “The Art of Aging Gracefully.”
And here’s a fascinating piece in Psychology Today by Jere Daniel, who writes: “Fear of aging is the single most powerful agent creating exactly what we fear.” In other words, we’re making ourselves even older by worrying about aging. Yikes! We’re sunk!
Since I can’t figure out how to handle looking old, I use the Bald Head mirror to help me slap on sunscreen and a bit of makeup, and I head out to soak up the beauty of the island.
What about you? Do you have aging beauty figured out yet?
Friend For The Ride 