Aging Gracefully: Embracing Inner Beauty and Wisdom

Don’t prioritize your looks my friend, as they won’t last the journey. Your sense of humor though, will only get better with age. Your intuition will grow and expand like a majestic clock of wisdom. your ability to choose your battles, will be fined-tuned to perfection. Your capacity for stillness, for living in the moment, will blossom. Your desire to live each and every moment will transcend all other wants.

Judi Dench

I first saw this portrait in an exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. It was painted in 1943. When I look at it now, I wonder about the model. She was obviously a beauty. How well did she age? Did she acquire that magical allure that isn’t affected by years?

My personal preference is to age gracefully without resorting to medical procedures. Besides having a healthy skepticism of the health care industry, I am not a fan of self inflicted pain. So, I am left with whatever creams and cosmetics help to mediate the process.

Some women seem to be ageless. That’s not to say they don’t have wrinkles or sagging skin. There’s something there that can’t quite be discerned. It’s an inner glow that makes them attractive, unaffected by years. It can’t be bought. It’s who they are.

In todays’ society we value youth and chase after beauty. As quoted by Judi Dench, possibly we would do better to focus on the positive aspects of aging and succumb gracefully.

I thought I had finished this until last night I heard a poem, Good Bones, by Maggie Smith. She writes,” Life is short, though I keep it from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways. A thousand ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children.”