There’s really nothing funny about getting older. The fact that you have become your mother isn’t really all that bad. You loved your mother, right? I know I did. She came to live in our home when she was my age. It was kind of a last resort. She’d been living in Florida for several years after marrying her second husband. During that time, she continued to suffer from back pain from many botched surgeries in her younger years. She watched her second husband pass away. She was always a vibrant woman in spite of all her physical ailments. The chronic pain was often masked by her laughter. She’d become dependent on pain killers, so it was a matter of “getting her clean,” when she first arrived.

When I look in the mirror today, I see her. I see the wrinkles in her face – her smile – her sense of humor – her love and compassion. I hope those are things that others see in me. As we walk through this journey called life, we can often get overwhelmed by our circumstances. Aging is definitely not for the faint of heart. That’s why I’m involved in a theatre troupe that focuses on aging with an open mind. My character’s name is Pearl, which is why I’ve chosen to go with the cartoon in this post.

We have no control over what happens to us physically, but we can teach ourselves to accept the things that happen to us both physically and mentally. Instead of working so hard on staying young – on curing old injuries – making new bodies out of worn-out ones – let’s start putting some humor back into our lives. It sure beats the alternative. While we’re at it, our attitude will often change the way we feel.