Growing “Older” Gracefully-A celebration of timeless beauty

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” 

― Sophia Loren

The girls and I were at the spray park today, cooling off from the sweltering Canada Day heat and what I observed was an abundance of women determined to NOT grow old but in turn they looked just that. There really is something to be said for growing “older” gracefully. By that I don’t mean letting yourself go. I mean dressing appropriately, not using so much make-up that it settles into your fine lines, actually adding to the years you are trying to cover up, and keeping it natural. With age comes wisdom and people that have the wisdom to embrace their years can teach us all a lesson. I was thinking back to some of the women I have admired and envied over the years and how their addictions to plastic surgery and holding on to youth have been anything but kind to them.

Remember Melanie Griffith in Milk Money? She was just naturally beautiful and she exuded  happy confidence. For years she had an on again off again romance with hunk Don Johnson and when that romance finally fizzled Melanie found solace and love with Spanish heartthrob Antonio Banderas. Perhaps trying to keep up with Hollywood elite young beauties was too much because sweet, fresh faced Melanie is a shadow of her former self.

Melanie in Milk Money

Melanie –Growing Older Gracefully

Melanie Before and After

Priscilla Presley

In 1959 Iconic Elvis Presley met Priscilla at a party in Germany. She was 14 at the time but appeared much older and made quite an impression on the King. She was truly one of the most beautiful women in the world. I can understand the desire to stay youthful and I can only assume that a little nip here and a tuck there turns into an obsession until there is very little left to work with. Priscillas pretty face does not even show a glimpse of who she once was and should now be. 😦

Young Pricilla

Growing Older Gracefully

Plastic Surgery Gone Horribly Wrong

Mickey Rourke

He was so sexy and seductive alongside Kim Bassinger  in 9 1/2 weeks. Vanity is devilish!

Victoria Beckham

There is nothing POSH about this disaster. Your hunky husband may play soccer but I am sure he didn’t intend for you to put balls on your chest!

Darrel Hannah

Like a fish out of water something has gone terribly wrong with my favorite mermaid

Heidi Montag

Of Hollywood’s the Hills fame, young Heidi, born and raised in Colorado intends to become a walking barbie. One thing is for certain, she is plastic!

The true beauties are those that embrace their age like Helen Mirren, Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, Sheryl Crow, Halle Berry, George Clooney, Sting, Diane Keaton, Bruce Springsteen, Julianne Moore, Diane Lane, Annette Benning, Richard Gere and my FAVE Jamie Lee Curtis. These are the men and women we should be looking up to. Healthy bodies, healthy faces and healthy attitudes about aging. Aging is inevitable but the way you age is a choice. Cheers to Growing older gracefully, in mind, body and spirit.

Daily Prompt-(Great or Greatest) Honesty

What makes a blog great? What makes you follow a blog or “Like” a post? Photographers, artists, poets: show us GREATNESS.

Honesty

Blogging is a fabulous opportunity to be yourself and speak honestly.  I read and follow all sorts of blogs.  I have stumbled across and read blogs that I wouldn’t repeat their subject matter in public but usually if I get caught up in reading a post it is because the writer is genuine and something about them laying their soul bare for all to read resonates with me. It is brave to open yourself up like that and if I feel invited into someone’s heart and thoughts I will like their post and follow their blog, often commenting to let them know how their post made me feel. That being said it’s great when someone who has experience offers their wisdom and what they have learned in a non judgmental or bossy way. I feel I have a lot of life experience.  I have learned from mistakes but I think you can share your stories without telling someone that your way is the only way. I write pretty candidly about putting my son up for adoption when I was sixteen and the problems I have endured as a mother and a wife. I appreciate similar posts that draw me into the writer’s world for a couple of moments and make me feel like I am in their living room sharing over a glass of wine. I know that my experiences are mine and my choices might not be for everyone but I feel that my blog is great because I am at a point in my life where I am incredibly happy just being me, which I feel allows me the strength to be honest about my life and my struggles. From the blogs I read I know that everyone deals with their own demons and for some people writing is their therapy. I appreciate you. I will like your post because it struck a chord in me and I will follow your blog because I am interested in your journey.

Honesty, now matter where you are in your journey will help you achieve greatness!

Please comment and invite me to your blog or your friends blog. I am always looking for a genuinely good read! One that makes me laugh, think, feel or gets me caught up in the moment. Happy reading, happy writing!

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Daily Prompt: The Natural World

Nothing makes me feel more like I am present in the moment then when I am close to nature and you can find it everywhere. It’s not what you look at, it’s what you choose to see. The peony above got soaked with weeks of rain but in the morning a little sun peeked through the storm clouds and the petals opened up to meet it and bask in it’s hot splendor. Living things, raised by the unpredictable sun.

I am from Nova Scotia so I have always liked to be near the ocean. The call of the waves lapping against the rocks on the shore sings a special song to my heart. I often crave the solace that sound brings me.

The mountains of my West Coast home beckon me often. Whenever someone I know is visiting the mountains I say “Don’t forget to breathe! ” I drink the mountain air into my soul allowing it to fill my body head to toe. Part of my heart I leave there always and being reunited makes me feel whole.

Surrendering to nature makes everyday trials insignificant. Nature is restless, strong and enduring.

Natures plans are sometimes swift and fierce and others slow and steady.

The challenge is to allow yourself to see and feel the beauty and promises of our natural world. It is in your crowded city days and lazy country afternoons. It is everywhere if you take the time to see it!

 

Daily Prompt: No Longer a Mere Mortal

  DAILY PROMPT: You’ve imbibed a special potion that makes you immortal. Now that you’ve got forever, what changes will you make in your life? How will you live life differently, knowing you’ll always be around to be accountable for your actions?  Photographers, artists, poets: show us LONGEVITY.

The potion was tasteless but immediately the aftertaste was bittersweet. In a moment of hot summer euphoria I had given myself the gift of forever. I shot it back like a cheap shot of tequila in a dive bar. No lemon, no salt, just straight up like a champ!

Now I was faced with an eternity of decisions and the knowledge that I would outlive everyone I had ever known. I would say goodbye to my husband and helplessly watch my children take their last breaths and leave the mortal world. Would I live forever in sadness and mourning for all that I had once loved? Would I plant every inch of my property with new and vibrant flowers, knowing that I could anticipate their return year after year for all of eternity? Would I spend my days lazy and carefree knowing that there were many more to come?

I sat back in my patio chair allowing the hot sun to wash over my face with it’s splendid presence. A slight breeze tickled my nose, perhaps promising many a sunny day in my future.

I vowed then to see the sun from many different places. I will travel and seek wisdom, knowledge and experience all the universe offers to me. I will visit Rome, once the most powerful civilization in the world. I will seek answers from it’s people. I will visit the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty and Shakespeare’s England. From the ruins of Athens to the wonders of Egypt I will seek and I will find. Prague, Hong Kong, Berlin, Nepal, so many places and a lifetime of questions.

I will love again when all those I have loved have gone. For certain it will be a different love but love all the same.

I will thirst and hunger for the knowledge to fuel my journey and share it as if I I were sharing wealth with the poor so that those I love along the way can live their short lives with the power of promise and the secrets of what once was and what is to be. I will teach people to live their short lives fuller and smarter, allowing for abundant happiness and love.

In a moment I chose never ending life. Forever I will choose to live it. I am immortal, but knowledge will be my true power.