Aging Imperfectly But With Attitude

Aging comes with gains and an abundance of bodily imperfections. How you choose to age is up to you. I’m aging imperfectly but with attitude. So can you.

Aging and eventually a demise are a part of life. Many geniuses preceded us in time, and none of them figured out how to live forever. Apparently, the packaging of our identity is perishable and has a definite expiration date. Knowing that we have a choice to make. Not whether to age, but what attitude to take as we age.

My attitude toward aging? I’d like to look good and feel good until I drop. For as long as possible, I won’t allow anything to interfere with my plan or let minor imperfections stand in my way. So, I’m aging imperfectly but with attitude.

I look good. Am I bragging? Yes, but before you decide that I’m a narcissist in love with myself, hear me out.

A blank canvas isn’t art. It’s the artist who turns a blank canvas into art. I’m not bragging about the blank canvas, I take pride in my “artistic” achievements.

Talking about minor imperfections. I have them all. Yours may differ from mine, but if I found a way to live with mine and not be bothered, so can you.

Facial Hair
So, I have three hairs stubbornly growing on my chin. Would you have known it if I didn’t share? No! So, stop belly-aching and pinching yourself with tweezers. Buy a decent electric (rechargeable is best) shaver, use it twice daily, and move on.

Teeth
Gums shrink with age. The distance between your nose and chin becomes shorter.
Your facial expression becomes more severe. Sad.
Did you see the TV commercials for dental implants? All the patients looked bad before and young and beautiful after. Why? Dental implants restore the youthful distance between the nose and chin. (The implanted teeth are longer than regular teeth!) Think about it!
If you don’t have teeth implants, close your mouth, and with your mouth closed, open your jaw. Look in the mirror. Keep your mouth closed and smile. Got it? There is a way to compensate for what we’re losing.

Sagging Boobs
I was promised spectacular boobs once I’m old (it was true for my grandmother and my Mother). Well, the promise skipped a generation. I lost a lot of weight due to health struggles and this made my boob deficit even worse. God didn’t give me much to begin with, and now the little is going away, too.
Well, there are many generously padded bras…. Whether they’re overflowing or got space to spare is for me to know and for you to guess….

One more thing, a bra doesn’t necessary belong at your boobs’ location. Look at your body’s profile in the mirror and see where the spectacular boobs SHOULD be. (Hint: it will be higher than you think.)

Don’t worry about your boobs, worry about your silhouette. Make the silhouette great and keep your secrets to yourself.

Thinning Hair
Well, I used to have the kind of hair with which one could pull a truck in a freak show. Not anymore. Now, I’m losing hair in one particular place on my head and it makes me look and feel like crap.

Should I sit and cry? There are baseball hats, hats, hats with attached hair, and – push-come-to-shove – wigs. Life goes on, I’m not my hair, and neither are you.

Hands With Age Spots
Pretty much everything works for fading age spots, and NOTHING removes them permanently. I don’t know about you, but my age spots offend me. Once again, sit and cry or slap on a little foundation?… It works!

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And this isn’t even the complete list of my shortcomings. But, I’m well-read, well-educated, well-traveled, multi-lingual, and yes, I have a sense of humor, too. If the only thing you choose to focus on is my imperfections… It’s your loss. In other words, don’t sweat the small stuff! Not mine and certainly not yours. Yes, there are some losses on the way. But don’t let the losses overshadow the gains. We survived. We have grown into ourselves. We know more. We are self-confident. We are resilient. We have power and value that we were not aware of earlier.

Going back to my defects, I also have a wrinkled face, a flawed midsection, disgusting arms, an imperfect decolletage, and more!

I’m not elaborating on those here because there will be separate posts dedicated to concealing each of these.

As I discovered, many body flaws can be successfully concealed with some DIY alterations or creations, so in closing, I’ll tell you a bittersweet story from my life.

I’m an only child. My Mom was the love of my life (very much a kindred spirit of mine), and we’ve had a very close relationship. As she was getting old and I was still cocky, she seemed to be getting somewhat weird with her demands. One of them: “I need Armani at my beck and call.” Crazy, isn’t it? I ridiculed her for it. (Boy, how I regret it!)

My Mom wasn’t handy. Since she was getting up in age, she wasn’t very patient either and didn’t elaborate on her request. I was dumb enough to take it literally. Look at me now, I am my own Armani, adjusting my clothing to my aging body’s needs.

I’m so sorry for being insensitive to my Mother’s needs. Everybody knows that children outgrow their clothes. Everybody knows that a woman’s body changes throughout life. We don’t talk about the changes a body undergoes due to aging and the related need for alterations, reinventions, or whatever else it takes to make an aging woman comfortable in her skin.

My Mama called me a late bloomer. I sure was. And I still am.