After a VERY late night (early morning) up talking with one of my best friends, I should have still been sleeping at 8:00 this morning. But for some reason, I am so excited that it's my birthday today! I feel like a kid! I made it to 45! And I don't feel it - I don't think it - I don't look it!
Some people take "getting older" so serious. Some also use it as an excuse to stop doing the things they loved to do. Or allow the number of their age to dictate how they will feel about themselves, rather than the other way around. I am definitely NOT any of these types of people.
What does it REALLY mean to get older? As far as I am concerned, it is just a frame of mind...it shouldn't be the "frame" of my body. Yeah, yeah, I know it is another notch on the tree of aging, but does it mean my body and mind needs to feel older just because my number went up another year?
For the last couple of years, I feel like I have been working hard to keep my mind and body 10-15 years younger than it really is. Not because I am vain or self-absorbed, but because I look at my family tree, and I WANT to live longer AND healthier than some of my relatives. I want to grow older with fewer health complications that have already been pre-determined that I am genetically at risk of developing. I want to see all four of my children grow up and reach the age I am today (at least) with their own families. I am ONLY at the mid-point of life!
By the time I started having children, I was the same age my mother was when I was 9 years old! How awesome for me that I was graduating high school with a mom who was still in her 30's!! My mom seemed like a "rock-star." My kiddos, instead, will have the pleasure (or not) of having a mom in her 40's AND 50'S by the time they are all out of high school. I remember how active and vibrant my mother was when I was a teenager and in college. It was awesome. Perhaps there is this part of me that believes (and feels) that I owe the same to my children.
With all this "seriousness" regarding getting older, there are definitely some FUNNY sides to getting older, that CLEARLY tell me I AM getting older...and I can't stop it. (But I plan on trying to slow it down - dramatically!)
* The gray hairs that now need to be dealt with at least 4 times a year or else I would look like I had wire for hair. Not a good look! LOL!
* The food I eat after 8:00 p.m. tends to not digest so well, and then I find it in the morning attached to my hips and/or stomach as a reminder that my metabolism stopped working during the night.
* I can't mix my "libation" drinks without feeling the effect in the morning. (I have to stick to the same drink, or wine and one other type of drink. And I HAVE to stay away from including dairy drinks in the mix. NOT a good feeling - or look - for me. Just ask my friend Gretchen. LOL!)
* There are a few extra cracking sounds when I am doing the stretches of my body before working out.
* The HARDEST place on my body to get toned up (which is the least HARD) has become my stomach and thighs!
* The hot flashes have started while I am sleeping. I know this would probably constitute a good reason to sleep naked for comfort...but with 4 kids in the house...I am thinking they probably don't want to be scared with the image of my naked body should they need to wake me during the night from a nightmare they were having. I will become their newest nightmare.
* If I sit the wrong way for too long, my hips start to hurt! (WTH - With all of the working out I have been doing on the tread mill, weights and circuit training equipment, how could this be happening? Don't tell me this is one of the first signs of my body starting to fall apart "because I am getting older." NOT ALLOWED!)
* My hips hurt after a night of dancing (and sometimes certain physical activities)...and in some cases I have ended up in an ER the next morning because I can't walk from dancing (just to clarify)!
YEAH, YEAH...go ahead and laugh! This one ranks right up at the top of my list of "most embarrassing moments" in my life...right behind my jumping out of the back of a moving pick-up back in high school as a sophomore. (I believe it was this 'brilliant" choice I made as a youth that has negatively impacted the use of my hips as I have aged. I am not 100% sure! But it sounds good! LOL!)
We had gotten in trouble for bringing shaving cream to school on the last day of school in order to "ambush" our 11th grade football player friends. It worked...and we also got caught! Our consequence was to sweep the school parking lot the next day when there was no school. Rather than sweeping, we decided it would be more fun to ride around in the back of one of our guy buddies pick-up, listening to music. When we saw the school principle coming outside to check on us, rather than ducking down (like my other friends) - I stepped over the tailgate and JUMPED out of the moving vehicle! Needless to say, this was NOT a good move! (And I also realized I would never make a good stunt woman in Hollywood! LOL!)
As I hit cement, burning off the rivets on the hip pockets of my Levi 501 jeans, I also tore off the fabric - down to my hip and underwear! Definitely NOT the way to NOT be seen by the principle!
Many years later that I am coming to realize that the stupid stuff we do when we are younger, does in fact come back to haunt us in one form or another. For me, that injury to my hip when I was 15 years old, had impacted me when I was pregnant and birthing my babies, sometimes when doing certain physical activities, and now DANCING.
So despite the reminder I may have in the morning of my body aging after a night of dancing, guess what I will be doing for my birthday tonight? GOING DANCING! Oh Yeah!
Unless I am in a wheelchair, this body of mine will continue to dance. (Oh wait, I just saw on the Glee Project, one of the contestants was in a wheelchair and she WAS able to dance with the other people - in her wheelchair. So I guess I won't have to stop dancing if I AM in a wheelchair!)
I truly love getting older. I don't fear it. I embrace it. I am more confident now then I was 10, even 20 years ago. I don't take a whole lot of crap from people anymore. I refuse to be taken advantage of and used. I am more honest and straight forward. I don't want to waste my time on excuses and BS from people that aren't "real" with me. My time has become more important to me with great value - not to be wasted on those that don't appreciate it or me. TRUE friends stand the test of time, distance and circumstances and I am so thankful for them!!! They keep me strong and steadfast during the good and not so good moments during my life - especially during the last couple of years.
I am so much more comfortable with my body now than I was years ago...even though it doesn't look like it did years ago. I am finding my"swag" again with my dressing. It has always been there, but somewhere along the way, I had lost it - or rather I started ignoring it. Not anymore. Life has become the "here and now" because I don't now if I will have tomorrow, next week or next year.
Happy 45th Birthday To Me! And may I be blessed with another 45! :-)
So this is how the journey goes.. Glad I found it. :)
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