Why Do I Have to Age? {Learning to be Graceful}

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I seriously ask myself everyday the question, “What happened?”

I used to have so much energy. Pulling an all nighter studying, reading, or just talking to my friends was nothing. Getting up early was no problem, and I didn’t need coffee to make it to midday. Swimming was part of my life. The high school swim team took up a lot of my time. I was quite busy growing up, and I never complained.

Fast forward some years, sorry I am not giving my age away… we’ll just say that I graduated from high school over ten years ago… Coffee is my best friend. There is no way that I could imagine functioning in the morning without at least one, oh who am I kidding, four cups of coffee. No joke, it’s so bad that even my daughter knows “No Talkie before Coffeagee.”

My nights go a little like this::

Get my daughter off to bed. Clean up a little bit. By 8:45 pm, I get to enjoy downtime with my husband. Yet, by 9 pm, I am usually asleep.

My husband will try to wake me up to get me to go to bed, but I usually respond with “I’m not sleeping, I was simply resting my eyes.” His response is, “You weren’t snoring either.” {Of course I don’t snore, I simply breathe loudly through my nose.}

When I was younger I colored my hair all sorts of crazy colors, and never worried about the damage being done. My younger self’s hair grew back pretty fast if I needed to cut it. I could cut it Mandy Moore short if I chose to, so I did. Maybe tried out the Aniston, but I was never really a fan of her hairstyle. Don’t get mad.

Now, I don’t really know how long my hair is. I usually wear my hair in a side braid or bun. The greys are starting to pop through. But you know what? I am learning to like it.

My silver hair means that I have earned some wisdom. Wisdom that the fresh face teen I used to be didn’t have. Those pesky crows feet that are slowly growing by my eyes, well I have laughed a lot.

My energy level isn’t where it used to be, but I am choosing to age gracefully. I am choosing, everyday, to like where my body has taken me and what is left for it to do. Of course, I have days where I long for the body I had during the teenage years, but you know what? My body carried a baby and brought a life into the world! I may have more curves, more grey hair and less supple skin, but I am happy with it. Well, honestly as happy as I can be.

Being happy with my body is something I work on daily. Us, women are our own worst enemy, and here I am trying not to be mine.

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Alecia
A native of Tennessee, Alecia calls Texas home for a few years while her husband of 4 years serves in the military. She is a mom to a 10 year old girl and a stay at home soccer mom. Faith is a huge part of Alecia's life and she loves volunteering where she can in her community. Her favorite things are writing/reading, thunderstorms, baking/cooking, gardening, walking the dog, crocheting and spending quality time with her family. She would be more than willing to do without having to move when the Navy says "go," deployments, spiders, and mosquitoes.