Old Aint for Sissies
Old ain't for sissies, I hear it over and over and now that I am of the ripe old age of___, I know it to be true. So here it is little sisters, aging sucks the big lemon in the sky.
Your body betrays you. You have gas leaks in every part of your body openings, your organs feel like they might be rotting, wrinkles appear in places they shouldn't, mucous build up in areas off limits, your menstruating then your not then you are. Weariness just going to the PIggly Wiggly for bran kills you. Your nails crack, you grow Italian mustaches , you fake hearing people because your ears are on holiday. Your veins appear bigger because your skin is thinner. Where once there was a bronze-ee tan are dimpled age spots crossing to-and-fro. Your joints creak and are always in desperate need of oil like the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz. Opposite sex stop looking at you except the 80 year olds who have cataracts and hobble a bit. You give up the dream of living in a mansion and cruising every third month. You stop hoping for things because the reality is not conjoining with expectations. You waver on the resoluteness of your decisions in life. You wish you could drink whiskey.
Having said that..........it is also the most amazing thing ever. If you didn't when you are young, you do now know your style. You don't think how do I l00k to others, you wear what you love. You are too old for cheap chocolate (btw, my friends abroad, Europe rocks for chocolate.) You wear only leather shoes and carry only handbags you delight in, also leather. You speak your mind and bite your tongue when appropriate. (You have lived long enough to know what to do.) You don't always have to be right and you don't always have to be quiet. You can eat ice cream in the morning with your grand children and you can tell your teen-ager, you bug me. You can opt out of anything you want without guilt, you are closer to dying then being born, so guilt is not part of your vocabulary anymore. You can watch, with utter amazement, your family growing and changing. You can see you in their lives. Reflection. You can conclude that this is the third chapter of a 3 chapter book and you can go out and do things you didn't have time to do raising a family. Art classes, back to school, rearrange furniture. You can go back to work to earn that cruise. Your husband and you know each other so well, every blemish every curve of each other. You are molded together by time. You can wear Doc Martens with the British Flag peppered on them and no one cares....or atleast you don't.
Yeah, growing old ain't for sissies, but it is a whole lot better then the other option.
Go and grow old. It is a trip worth taking.
Having said that..........it is also the most amazing thing ever. If you didn't when you are young, you do now know your style. You don't think how do I l00k to others, you wear what you love. You are too old for cheap chocolate (btw, my friends abroad, Europe rocks for chocolate.) You wear only leather shoes and carry only handbags you delight in, also leather. You speak your mind and bite your tongue when appropriate. (You have lived long enough to know what to do.) You don't always have to be right and you don't always have to be quiet. You can eat ice cream in the morning with your grand children and you can tell your teen-ager, you bug me. You can opt out of anything you want without guilt, you are closer to dying then being born, so guilt is not part of your vocabulary anymore. You can watch, with utter amazement, your family growing and changing. You can see you in their lives. Reflection. You can conclude that this is the third chapter of a 3 chapter book and you can go out and do things you didn't have time to do raising a family. Art classes, back to school, rearrange furniture. You can go back to work to earn that cruise. Your husband and you know each other so well, every blemish every curve of each other. You are molded together by time. You can wear Doc Martens with the British Flag peppered on them and no one cares....or atleast you don't.
Yeah, growing old ain't for sissies, but it is a whole lot better then the other option.
Go and grow old. It is a trip worth taking.
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