To people who think it’s a compliment to say “you look amazing for your age” or “I can’t believe you’re in your late 40s” you have been suckered into a cult which associates only youth with beauty. As you age you will realise beauty is present always. In the innocence of children, the slim hips and lithe limbs of adolescent boys, the firm, fertile flesh of twenty somethings, a 40 year old man’s hands and forearms marked by work and play, the confidence with which a 45 year old woman walks and will hold your gaze, the softening of bellies and hearts as we move into our fifties, the slow stoop of spines which have bent for decades to work, to children, to loved ones. Beauty is always there. You just don’t see it.
So eloquently said, and so true. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, to some, I am beautifully real.