By Bev Dunlap
Thursday, May 01, 2008 |
“Beauty comes from a life well lived. If you’ve lived well, your smile lines are in the right places” — actress Jennifer Garner.
I got out of bed this morning, and, in walking down the hall, was surprised to find that I was tired. How in the world can you be tired when you first get up in the morning, following a “slept well” night? That happened day-before-yesterday, too. Talking to a friend later in the day, I mentioned the fact that I got up tired. She said the same thing had happened to her! Wow! I guess I am not alone in this morning weariness. It isn’t a favorite thing to have happen to you, but at least there is comfort in joint activities.
When you are younger, you are advised that there will “be days like this.” But this many? It isn’t just morning weariness, it is also dropping things all of the time, like counting cards, and three seem to jump out of your hands. You stop to pick up the fallen one and drop four more. They don’t seem to fall on the table, they go all the way to the floor. Bending over and picking things off the floor is not as easy as it once was. Doing this little action once in awhile is to be expected; repeating these actions begins to make you mad. After all, I have so much to do today that I don’t have time for all this bending and reaching and trying to get shaking fingers to pick up things!
Wrinkles are to be expected, but we all take exception to them becoming ruts. Most people accept some laugh lines; however, it is more difficult to accept cracks moving up from your mouth. Of course, if you are a woman, the lipstick runs up and down the lines, moving out from the mouth. No matter how carefully you apply makeup, it collects in the wrinkles.
I am told that wrinkles are laugh lines and indicative of a happy life, but I think wrinkles are indicative of wisdom, gained by experiencing life. Weariness happens when you have been busy doing what used to take five minutes and now takes an hour. And dancing used to be the only time you moved gracefully, but now is the forerunner to a fall from old feet!
Change is inevitable with the aging process; accepting those changes is another thing. There are some things that help, and one is to develop a desire to add a few more wrinkles with the knowledge you are attaining when you read or observe life as it goes by. Also, by accepting as inevitable the process, and recalling the long journey and the joyful experiences you have had.
My body may be tired and not work as well as it once did, but I am a person who has lived and loved for a lifetime and is ready to share my life and happenings with you. It is my greeting to an aching world. (Besides that, they now tell me that all that bending and reaching and smiling are all good exercises and will tend to keep me young! Wanna bet?)
The key is to be happy every day of your life. Work at it, remember it and keep it in front of you daily. My best wishes for your extremely happy week!
(Bev Dunlap is a retired senior citizen living in Port Orford with her husband).
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