A Thigh Sigh...

It has happened. I knew this dreaded day would come. I was getting dressed before my morning walk, and the sun must have been coming in the window just right, because I looked down and saw (gasp!!!) my thighs are sagging!!! SAGGING!!! I have old lady thighs!! How did this happen? I walk every day and thought I would avoid such signs of aging. I mean, I eat well...exercise...I'm SUPPOSED to last forever!

OK, calm down. Breathe. You can deal with this. (I say to myself as I'm lifting up on my skin to see how to fix it maybe support hose or rubber bands would help?)

I remember years ago, probably 10 years at least, I heard someone say she no longer wore sleeveless tops. I asked why? She replied that their arms were old. OLD? How do your arms get old? And even if they do, aren't you hot in long-sleeves? It's gotta be 90 degrees out here!! Wait, are we supposed to stop being comfortable because our old arms might offend someone? Why do old arms offend? Oh well, I took it in and stopped wearing sleeveless tops. For about a year, maybe two, until I decided I was too damned hot to care. I do remember when the saggy skin started to appear under my arms, but if I keep them down I can easily pretend it doesn't exist.

The thing I find so disturbing is that I don't notice or care what other women in their various stages of weight or aging look like. I truly think women are beautiful! And it is my deepest desire to see all women set free in their beauty and comfortable in their skin...sagging or firm. Yet the changes in my own body are...a bit unnerving.

Still, I am determined to keep blazing on this trail...this new territory where the years of my future are less than the years of my past. I want to age gracefully...and by that I don't mean that I want to look younger than my years. I mean I want to show the daughters in my life, and particularly my granddaughter some day, that aging isn't scary. I want them to know that beauty truly does come from within and can shine just as brightly from a saggy and wrinkled body. When the world is bombarding them with anti-aging messages and distorted and fake images of perfection, I want them to see how wonderful growing old can be.

So, I will bravely push on...in sleeveless tops when it's hot out...even flaunting my saggy thighs in a swimsuit. I refuse to succumb to peer pressure at my age. Life is way too short and beauty too complex to be defined by a magazine cover. Come on, saggy thighs...we're going for a walk!