Why is it that I feel like I did in high school, albeit a little brighter and much more confident.  But the reflection in the mirror shows wrinkles and cellulite?  How did I let that happen?  How did the years just pass by in a blur, and how did I take them for granted?  Now I am a 40 something year old woman who wishes she could go back to her late 20’s and be the person she is right now, in THAT body, with THAT age! 

    I have friends who although the same age as me: act, look and feel as if they are 10-20 years older that I am.  They are proud of being in their 40’s like it is some sort of right of passage. Not that I am not proud to be where I am, but I don’t think that being 40 is something like celebrating reaching 100. 

            I mean really, in this age of exercise, healthy living and diet, supplements, liposuction, augmentation and hair dye, why must any of us look or feel our age?  And how do we ACT our age?  Who is the authority on acting our AGE?  Is there a text book or dictionary somewhere that tells us how we are supposed to act at a certain age?  Why can’t you wear clothes that make you look HOT if you look hot in those clothes?  Why can’t you wear your hair long after 50?  Who makes the rules?  It’s probably one of those people that feel OLD and don’t want anyone else to feel anything different than they feel.   My friend got reading glasses and wrote all about it and took photos on Facebook to show that she is getting old.  HELP!  I refuse to get old….I am reversing the aging process right now.  I feel young, I dress young and I am going to act young.  Perhaps that IS my age.  Perhaps how you take care of yourself determines the age you are, not the number of birthdays you celebrated.  I had heard somewhere that it is possible to reverse your aging by surrounding yourself with things that make you feel young…I am not recommending buying diapers and a pacifier, but I am suggesting cute clothes, jewelry and shoes….haircut and music. Things that make you feel alive!  Try it and see if it doesn’t make you feel more relevant, hip and YOUNG!  And then act the age you feel.  Who cares what others think, it’s  your Life.Let them age on their own time because your time is too precious to waste worrying about whether or not you are acting your age!

Sometimes we walk around in our daily life oblivious to the gifts that are all around us.  A bird chirping a beautiful love song or an

orchestra of song birds singing in unison. 

The butterfly that flits from flower to flower catches  our attention if only for a brief passing second if we even notice it at all.

Flowers stretching and reaching for the sun that dries the dew that has formed upon their petals. 

The insects who toil their day away moving earth, cleaning away the dead and dying, gathering food and building shelters. 

Dolphins that play in the surf and dance in the waves, these creatures intrinsically know that life is meant to enjoy. 

If we would just be; be one with our surroundings, without trying to order and categorize it, seeing without looking, hearing without

listening, we would find ourselves surrounded by the beautiful gifts that are rarely noticed. 

It is another world that goes on whether we are a part of it or not.  It doesn’t care what is in the headlines; it just is.

In this world we can find ourselves, we can become one with the life force that is inside of us. 

Take time to open the gifts that are presented before you, but they are not wrapped in pretty paper and bows; they are wrapped in

the colors of the rainbow and fragrance of flowering trees.  Behold the beauty that is.