When my daughter Danielle was little we used to sing this song called Whose that Girl in the Mirror. I think it came from an old children's video, but this 50 something year old brain of mine can't quite recall.
Speaking of this "53" year old mind...it is also attached to this 53 year old face and body, and that is my inspiration for today's blog.
Sunday morning I was lying in bed thinking about my life, my age, and time. I took a quick selfie of myself void of makeup (and if I was tech savvy I would add it to this blog...but I'm just lucky I even know how to do this blog )....any way I digress...I looked at the selfie with my face full of lines, and a neck that sags and shows my age. I looked at my arms that giggle and have a wing like span to them. And then I even looked down at my no longer flat stomach with its many many stretch marks. I realized then that the song Whose that Girl in the Mirror, no longer was about the girl in the mirror, but Me, a 53 year old mother of five and grandmother to Leo.
How is it possible that the girl named Kelly is now a 53 year old mother and grandmother? But then I realized, that I am still that girl, and I am still youthful and full of life. I realized that the lines on my face, are laugh lines, stress lines, worry lines, love lines, life lines....lines that show what a beautiful life I have lived and am living.
My sagging neck may show my age, but this sagging neck is still strong and holds upon it, a head whose brain is still functioning, strong and has still such a huge capacity for learning new things and remembering all that it has learned up till now.
The arms that giggle and look like wings may make me not want to wear sleeveless anymore, but when I thought about my arms and their wings...I thought about guardian angels and their wings. I realized that my wings are for wrapping around my husband, my children, my parents, my siblings, my friends and now my grandson and future grandchildren. These giggly wings have a huge capacity to comfort and embrace all the people that I have had a privilege to love in these 53 years and all the people and loved ones to come.
The stretch marks on my no longer flat stomach...they don't bother me as much. When I see these stretch marks, I see the faces of the five beautiful, amazing human beings that I carried and who created those stretch marks. I think of those stretch marks as I would think of a road map. A map full of destinations and journeys and roads not yet traveled. I look forward to watching my children travel those roads, and create their own maps.
I'm glad I took that selfie this past weekend, and I'm glad it inspired me to write this, because....
Whose that Girl in the Mirror, whose that girl, la la la, la la la la la, whose that happy smiling girl....that girl is me!
