Getting Older
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years. -Audrey Hepburn
I feel relieved in some way to be getting older. Getting older doesn’t scare me. Quite contrary, it thrills me. I want my hair to turn grey. I may just feel more me than I ever have when it does.
I have felt small in many ways for much of my life, some having to do with being filled with dreams and whimsy, much like a small child. But in some ways, smallness took form in painful memories, false beliefs and lies that have defined me. However, there has always been a large part of me that never felt that I fit into this century. I have always felt like a very old soul. I remember struggling to connect with friends my own age, and instead finding friendship in their mothers (and in honesty, enjoying their company more.) I see myself more in women of the past, women who came before me. As I struggle to relate at all to “the modern woman.”
I have experienced what it’s like to be small and young, and now I look forward to be able to give voice to that old woman within me. I don’t think wrinkles make a woman less beautiful. I think there is nothing like the beauty of an older woman who knows her beauty is not merely decorative. It is something deeper. It’s a wisdom and a confidence she never had when she was young. Yet, she also knows that just because her face has weathered, it does not mean that beauty has left her. Her beauty is now held by a comfort and a peace in who she is, in who she was made to be.
In our youth-obsessed culture, what if we began to revolt against that insanity and look forward to getting a little older? As the saying goes, “with age comes wisdom.” In other cultures, the elders are revered for their wisdom and insight. They have much to give, a deep purpose to fulfill.
As for me, I look forward to looking in the mirror and seeing some grey hairs and some charming wrinkles appear on my face in the coming years because I know that they mean I have lived and loved and my face is simply telling the story.
“Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” Job 12:12
