If you haven’t noticed…
I’ve been a little distracted lately.
Like everyone else I know, there is a lot going on right now.
I find myself daydreaming about what it would be like to truly have some lazy days of summer. Remember what it was like to get out of school for the summer? Remember days spent running around in the heat with your siblings, turning on the sprinklers and eating homemade popsicles? Remember homemade ice cream out of those ice cream machines you had to crank with all that rock salt? And sun tea? And perfecting back dives and back-handsprings in the neighborhood pool? Oh, and evenings spent sitting outside, being eaten by mosquitoes, trying to keep your eyes open as you gazed up above at the sky trying to count the stars as they appeared?
Or was that just my childhood?
And when and how did I get old? OK. So I’m not that old. But, I feel my body aging and I see my face aging and I’m really trying to embrace it all. I try to see each wrinkle, each freckle and sun spot, each stretch mark each … how do I put this… each sag as a bodily memory of the wonderful and hard things about my life. My soft belly… tells the story of how I carried two babies and gave them life. Each wrinkle and line on my face tells about all the laughter and love my face has seen. My shifting shape, my transforming face and skin, are all reminders of the joy, the love, the sadness, the darkness, the light of all I’ve been through so far in this crazy life of mine.
Aging gracefully. Can I do it? Some days. And others, I just feel old.
I have a friend I used to work with. She now lives in Chicago. She let me stay with her while I was there last month for the conference. I should have written more about that experience, but life got so busy. I bring her up because I think she truly embodies this idea of our bodies telling the story of our lives. She’s inspiring, and lovely. A true kindred spirit. And oh my goodness, we had so much fun, and had the most amazing meal, and it poured rain and we ran in it… and it was one of the highlights of my summer, one lazy day.
The photo? An attempt to capture the rain through the Chicago skyline.
So what is this post about exactly???? I don’t know. Aging gracefully. Lazy days of summer. Trying to embrace it all.
To attempt to tie it all together go listen to this great summer song by Ben Harper :) and then proceed to have a fabulous day.
Happy b-day to Ms. P if you are reading!
