It dawned on me recently that some people who look at me might think I’m old. This is not something I generally care about. Once you stop caring what people think about you at their first glance the surge of power you feel is like three shots of free tequila.
The lovely neighbor was over having a glass of wine to calm her nerves because she has two children under the age of two. Yes, it was more than one glass, but we were having one of those soul-enhancing discussions where secrets and fears and joys fly in and out of each other’s hearts and we become sisters. We got around to birthdays, hers is today, mine is next week, and that led to the question, “How old are you?”
This is when I discovered she is my daughter’s age and I am a bit older than her mother. We both just shrugged and kept drinking. But later I realized someone else would think, “Holy shit, Radish is 68.9, she’s old!”
Yadda-yadda about the age is just a number thing as we see tiny women on social media leaping over buildings in tights who have stopped eating potato chips but that stupid saying is partially true.
There are some things I can’t do any longer but it doesn’t mean I have stopped trying. Yes, I quit coloring my hair four years ago and am delighted to see that younger women now pay to make their hair look like my grey curls. My chin is trying to rest on top of my boobs and they are trying to rest on top of my stomach (Yes, I still call my stomach Chardonnay), my stomach is trying to rest on top of my bad knees and well, that’s as far as it all goes.
I’ve never been big on surrendering when things get hard and truth be told some things about getting older, in number…hello!, get harder. It’s part of the deal and just like everything else in life…it depends on how you look at it.
There is so much power and freedom and energy in just being yourself and laughing when people look at you sideways because you were making your famous peacock call on the busy sidewalk. I never hesitate walking up to a mother or father and saying, “You need to put a hat on that beautiful baby because she’s sitting in the sun.” I refuse to wear the crappy clothes that hide certain body parts because I worked and played really hard to look this way and by the way…go ahead and judge “older women” because you are going to be one some day too!
No matter what happens, and a lot has happened to me recently, please never forget to keep living, smiling at the people who judge you, and always, always, always dance naked at the edge of dawn, baby!
