When did you first notice that you were getting old? I’m not talking about the crows’ feet around your eyes or the odd gray hairs, but the day you saw your mother/ father looking back at you from the mirror.
It was a turning point, wasn’t it? You may or may not have chosen to ignore the early signs, but you knew. You also knew that no creams, dyes, or cosmetic surgeries were going to change what was happening.
The real turning point, of course, is when you start to dread your annual physical exams, or the day when a spouse or a friend succumbs to illness or death. It is the day when you realize that the crows’ feet and gray hair were small potatoes.
What happens now? You sink into despair, or you pull yourself up by the bootstraps and move on. It can be as frightening or as liberating as you chose to make it.
Obviously, you cannot escape the gradual deterioration and decline that lies ahead, but you can capitalize on the world “gradual.” You are still “you” after all. A bit shaken perhaps, but “you” just the same.
Some people age very nicely, but others do not. How is it going to be for you?
Aging has become a hot topic, probably because there are so many of us. Libraries and bookstores are filled with self-help books, written by experts, about gerontology. Gerontology, after all, is the scientific name for the study of “us.”
When you read about these studies you will wonder how they arrive at their conclusions, but you read on because you really want to know. Naturally you are skeptical. Seriously, forty-year-old “experts,” quoting statistics, seems as unrealistic to most of us as the twenty-year-old models advertising anti-wrinkle creams.
Optimistic by nature you still want to know. Who can you talk to? Other than your doctor, nobody really wants to know how you feel. Your doctors are the experts. Speak up. Share your feelings. Let them help you become the best version of yourself that you can be.
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