Getting Comfortable as I Age...

July 20, 2011: Right now we have a “Brown Out” in our city. Currently, Michigan’s weather has been in to the high 90’s to 100 degrees. Tomorrow we are expected to reach over 100. There is no room to complain. I think it is a lot better than the winter months that will come within a few months too soon! Just go with the flow I say. Why complain about something that we have no control over.


So, I sit here typing on my laptop since I cannot turn on my computer to work. All of my appliances and electronics are powered off for their safety.


Last month my family surprised my twin sister and me with an all expensive trip to the Zumba Convention. Six days and five nights in Orlando, Florida! What an awesome gift and an awesome time! Donna and I had to plan our wardrobe, costumes, class subs, etc. within two weeks of leaving to Florida! Chrissy, Adam (my niece and her husband), my daughter Tatiana, Donna, and I headed to Florida on our actual birthday. We had no idea of what was ahead of us, but the excitement made all of us smile!


As most of you know, I had a big birthday this year. It was hard for me to come to terms with the BIG birthday and seeing the fast changes in my body and face, made my mind play negative thoughts and endless doubt of who I am and how much time I have on this earth. Okay, maybe a little dramatic, but come on…. A girl can whine about the new age for at least one day or so!


Getting back to our Florida trip, we had a lot of fun! When we were not at the workshops/classes, we were shopping, eating, or going to the Epcot Center. The rain or the heat did not stop us. I had a wonderful time hanging out with the five of us and thankful for the time we had together, without work or any worries. With the exception of Nino (my husband) having a major eye cornea tear while we were gone, it was the perfect birthday.



The last day of the convention, we attended the lecture of Keynote Speaker, Dr. Pamela Peeke. She was phenomenal! Her lecture hit home for me. Adapt and Adjust was her keywords. I cannot have my 20, or even 30 year old body back, but I can accept the changes in my new birthday body (okay, I am still having a hard time writing my new age…..). Instead of “wishing I had my abs of when I was 20”, I should accept how my abs look today. The sad truth is, when I was in my 20’s and even my 40’s, I thought I was FAT! What a shame to waste all that time and energy! I look back now and see that it was far from the truth!


I was reading a great article in Self Magazine today and wanted to take some quotes out of it to look back on it for future reading. What a perfect subject in Self Magazine to add to this journal posting…. Self-Expression (August 2011 issue, page 32) . Quotes from the article that we all can relate to:

• Regarding plastic surgery: “…….Their faces are fresh and smooth in contrast to my own, and it is hard not to feel ugly by comparison. It doesn’t help that these women occasionally see fit to lecture mw – You don’t have to look this way” – as if aging were a disease from which they’ve recently recovered, one for which I’ve stubbornly refused treatment……………………… But the truth is that no cosmetic procedure will ever give me back the younger me, just a different me, and that different me might be a stranger. My energy would better spent coming to terms with the face that represents who I am today --- part grown-up, part teenager, part mother, part wife and lover. My character is stamped on my face. I am not about to let a doctor mess with that………”

• (Talking about a friend who died in his 30’s of AIDS) “…. His life ended long before his time could line his pale cheeks. But that morning, as I watched his chest stop moving, I could think only of what Ed would have traded for the chance to grow old. So silently vowed to honor the life he never got to finish by celebrating my ability to finish my own. I promised myself I would never complain about my sheer luck at having the gift of another day. Another decade. That’s a promise I hope I get another 40 years to keep…”


• My favorite from this article: “… As I watched my colleagues stress out over minor mistakes or try hard to prove themselves, I recognize a younger self that I’d happily outgrown. I had a track record, a perspective that allowed me to embrace the things that caused me so much anxiety when I was younger – uncertainty, new situations. I was finally comfortable enough to do what I wanted……… The great thing about getting older is that instead of having fewer choices, I have many more….”

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