I'm Grateful!

Today's post is about something that I've wanted to talk about for several weeks now.  It is about women aging, getting heavier, going through menopause and accepting these changes.  Now if you are in your 20s and 30s and read my blog and decide it's time for you to tune out...I ask you to hold on a minute.  YOU will be my age before you know it ~ because time really does pass by quickly.  I remember being 25 and thinking I was a quarter of a century old and how OLD that was and being depressed!  Little did I know!  *LOL*  I remember having my children, being a working mother and a wife...living through my 30s and my 40s and I almost can't believe that I will be 52 in 2011.

I don't feel old.  My daughters and younger co-workers don't treat me like I'm old...but I can see that I'm aging just from the pictures that I've shared on this blog.  Each year I get a little heavier or something drops a little lower, my ankles have thickened and the dr. says it's just age & nuthin to do about it unless I lose xx amount of pounds and some days menopause kicks my behind all over the planet.

Now before you start posting how to lose weight tips etc. I am going to tell you upfront that I will delete them.  Because I'm not complaining about getting heavier, growing older or going through menopause ~ I'm celebrating these things.  I will be 52 years old.  I have three awesome daughters who sometimes don't even realize yet how amazing they are going to be.  I am the grandmother to two young men - who could possibly change the world some day.  I have known love and been loved by my family, by men and by my friends.  My legacy is not large and humogenous but there it is.

I want to argue the pros of acceptance and being the best you that you can be...acceptance for who you are now and for who you can become.  I've read several blogs where women my age are struggling with the fact that menopause is thickening our waists or changing our dress sizes or that our skin isn't as supple as it use to be.  I'm experiencing all of those things too - and some days it depresses me.  But I shake it off and remember to be thankful that I can experience this...because isn't life just a series of changes?

You are not the same person you were when you made your entrance into this world.  You are not the same person you were as a 10 year old girl, a 17 year old teenager, a 22 year old college graduate, a first time mother, or 35 or 45 even.  Life is a series of changes and it's how we embrace those changes, that allow us to live our best lives!  (Yes, I stole that one from Oprah!)  Now if you want to rage against the changes with exercise and diet - go for it with your whole heart.  If you want to accept the fact that you can grow old gracefully, I say go for that too!  But be authentic...be the best you possible!

I want to encourage us all to embrace our changes...learn to live with them and accept them.  Realize that the size of your thighs does not define who you are inside.  That menopause is just another stage of life and that there are hopefully more to go through.  That your life is a book with blank pages that only you can write upon, so don't let anyone else define what should be on the pages of your book.  And be grateful to be alive ~ there are so many wonderful sewing women that have left us this year ~ that it's AMAZING that we are still here, going strong, facing the challenges the world throws at us and LIVING this life!  Oh yeah, and lest I forget, creating amazing garments, accessories, home dec articles and children's clothing.

So my prayer for you as this year closes and another one begins is to realize that you are amazing.  That you have a gift and a talent imparted to you.  That you are wonderful and that aging, menopause and thickening ankles are just God's gifts to you to show you that you are living life in the body he's blessed you with!

Yes, my biceps are a little bigger.  Yes, my ankles are a little thicker.  Yes, some days I cry at the drop of a hat and others I rage at the world...never mind that my internal thermometer is seriously on the fritz! *LOL*  But I'm alive...and I get to buy one more piece of fabric...construct one more garment...and encourage one more person to sew.

I am grateful and I hope that you are too!