Segue to Storytime

I should be writing my “book” but I thought I needed some time to get myself in the correct mode so I pulled “Something More, Excavating Your Authentic Self” off my bookshelf and flipped about until I found the chapter on Fifty something. Here’s a quote worth remembering from Coco Chanel:

“. . . nature gives you the face you have when you are twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But it is up to you to earn the face you have at fifty.”

You can take that meaning any way you wish but I take it to mean that while life can rough you up a bit how you choose to move on, endure the rough spots and basically make lemonade out of lemons will build the character in your face. You can choose to be bitter and get sour and wrinkled in all the wrong places or you can laugh it off and have “smile lines” instead of wrinkles. Somewhere along this road we call life we are going to hit bumps and curves that can be pretty rough going but using yet another cliché one can choose to ride out the storm and end up in an oasis of perfection.

Now the oasis may be a single palm tree with no water except what comes from the tree or it could be several trees with a charming little pool or yet again a bustling oasis with a tiny village. Where the perfection comes in is how you perceive the oasis. I’m a woman of a certain age whose oasis is perfect because despite not having pots of money or the family I hoped for I am happy with what I have. I still see a long future ahead of me and I still have plans to do plenty of interesting things with my life. I do not look at my life as being half over, I look at the fact that at this stage of my life I have a lot more opportunities than I did when I was younger! What a revelation. What a bonus.

I ask you “why limit yourself? If you really feel as though there is no where for you to go but downwards, let me tell you to put on your walking shoes and take a walk around your neighbourhood. Take a look at the neighbours’ yards, the trees, the park, the dogs in the back yards. Listen to the birds tweeting away. Watch the cars go by. And breath. Think. Take in the sounds and the sights. There’s a beautiful world out there and you are part of it. The opportunities are there, you just have to look for them. And you have to tell yourself that you are worth it. You have value. Don’t ever put yourself down because there are always plenty of naysayers who will assist in knocking you off your horse. Build your self confidence. Trust yourself. Plug your ears to those who laugh or belittle you. The only person who can make their opinion important is you and you can choose NOT to make them important.

I repeat, “why limit yourself?