The wonderful eveolution of each of our lives.

Tweet

Aging as a whole seems to get a real bad rap. You get closer to leaving this life, people think you have lost your usefulness and your looks, and many older people find themselves losing the respect of those around them as well as feeling lost as to what their purpose in this life is anymore. First let's address the whole looks bit; there is beauty in every stage of a persons life. Beautiful does not mean that you look 17, have a "perfect" body, and porcelain skin without any marks or wrinkles. My grandmother and my Mother are both beautiful women wrinkles and gray hair included. As for their purpose or usefulness in this life it's not the same as it was tenor twenty years ago but they are still needed and still have so much to offer those around them. I have found that we all go through different stages in our lives, child, parent, grandparent, and great grand parent, each of which carries their own set of rights and responsibilities. The difficult part for most people seems to be letting go of what you used to be and embracing what you have become in all of it's glory. As a mother who has children starting to leave the nest I was so worried that I was losing who I was and became very depressed for a while. Then we had a "You might be becoming a Grandma" moment, which was a false alarm, and I got to thinking about what kind of Grandma I would want to be. As a grandma I'm not responsible for all of the little details of raising the child. I would be able to be the fun one with cookies and noisy toys. I get to be the one that can love up the baby then hand it back to mom when it stinks. You know what that sounds like fun and while I will always love my days as a mom and will surely miss the little boogers, I think I will be ok with my new role in life as a grandma, and when I'm a great grandma as well. If you are struggling with the concept of aging please keep in mind you are simply evolving into another stage of beauty and purpose both of which this world would be at a huge loss without.