WHO DO I THINK I AM??

You might be asking who am I to have a blog about skincare?! Fair enough. Here's your answer. My professional training is as a family educator, and as such, I am constantly reading up and staying current in areas in which I have an expertise and passion. For years, I did public speaking on child abuse, parenting and then grief and loss. After both my kids successfully left the nest, while still working professionally, I had more time to educate myself about personal concerns; i.e., aging and skincare. My casual interest developed into a passion which, surprisingly, put me smack, dab, into the retail world! I never saw THAT coming! Five years into my retail experience, I am still loving it, still educating others, while always, always, always learning from them! So, I hope you'll want to travel down this road with me of looking good at any age! We'll have fun doing this together!

IF WE HAD A CHOICE.......

My oh my oh my!!! Where does the time go??? My hope was to write on this at least once a week! Yeh, right! Anyhoo, I'm here now, so let's get going!

I have been catching glimpses of stories about Michael Jackson here and there and several have really disturbed me: 1) how he was abused and neglected by his dad so much so that he became more childlike as he grew older 2) how he was so fearful about aging that he would rather have died than get older.

This last one really got me thinking. American society is so totally preoccupied with staying young that plastic surgeons are having a hey day! Let's Botox those lines away and lift those sagging jowls and eyes. Other cultures truly value their elders- lines, wrinkles and all!! It's a beautiful thing. Not so here. Let me let you in on a secret. This is tied in with Americans' fear of death. If we don't age, then we're too young to die! When we look in the mirror and don't see wrinkles, then we're sure to stay around for a long time, right? Wrong!

I'm not here to bash plastic surgery, because I am all about trying to look as good as we can, but I am trying to help you see the world through different eyes than perhaps, you have before. Aging is a tough gig or as someone once said, "aging is not for sissies!" And you now why? Because it's a series of losses that most people don't realize or recognize as losses: loss of youth, energy, health, beauty, etc. Changes in our bodies redefine us. We aren't who we used to be and that is a bitter pill to swallow!

But we can do something about it! It's our ATTITUDE toward our losses, as well as our losses, that affect how we age! We can celebrate who we are inside, at the same time that we are learning how to accept how we appear on the outside. Sure, we can die young and remain forever youthful, like Princess Diana, Grace Kelly, Elvis, Michael Landon and many, many more. But I'll bet if you asked these people if they had the choice to die young and pretty or to live out longer lives with "wear and tear," what do think would be their answers? Better yet, given that choice, what would be yours?