Ever wonder why your mother’s face keeps looking back at you in the mirror? Have you finally learned what Isaac Newton discovered hundreds of years ago? What goes up will eventually come down. Are you trying to understand what is so funny about laugh lines?
Welcome to the wonderful world of aging. Turning 21 suddenly transformed you from a child to an adult, while turning 60 moves you from adult to that, pardon the pun, grey area of senior status. The good news is there is a whole new beauty that awaits you.
Why do we say that a bride is radiant? Is it her make-up, the new do or the gown? What about the expectant mother? Is her radiance dependent on the size of her belly? What makes a woman radiant? Does her ability to be radiant diminish at age 60?
Unfortunately, radiance does not come in a bottle of wrinkle cream or through the art of aesthetic surgery. Quite the contrary. It comes in the form of a life altering experience, one that can come at any age. I have witnessed women who have survived breast cancer, lymphoma, divorce, death of a loved one or other tragic circumstances and the triumph brings a radiance to their eyes and skin that no miracle fountain of youth can provide.
It would seem that radiance is not something bought, but something sparked. A new bride is radiant because she has embarked upon a transformation of being one, to being one of two. A new mother radiates not only the new life from within but also her own transformation of self to selfless for another human being. It is the same life altering transformation that brilliantly shines through a survivor of any tragic life circumstance. The knowledge that one can spring forth from the ashes, perhaps forever physically altered, but certainly mentally reinforced that makes survival the ultimate radiant facelift. The radiance is so deep it defies wrinkles and gravity is no match for its brilliance. Like perfume, it's unique glow is defined by the very woman who possesses it and is as viral as the common cold.
It is the women who sport this glow that find the face of their mothers in the mirror one of comfort, humor, vitality and inspiration as they begin to recognize the strength that lies in the radiance of age.
Image: Flickr by emmar