the naked face: the naked truth

This picture was taken while I was standing pretty close to the edge of the Grand Canyon. It had been raining or misting rain most of the morning and was at last clearing. It was such an amazing sight. . . clouds forming below us and rising. Earlier, we could hardly see the canyon, the clouds were so thick. It was our first, and, who knows but God, maybe our only trip there. I will never forget it though. It was a highlight of my life.

The purpose today is not to talk about the Grand Canyon, although I could go on and on, and possibly will in the future. No, today I'm just facing some truths. My birthday was Sunday. I am now on either the "dark" side of 60, or the "bright" side, depending on how you look at it. Today, it's seemed a little dim. Either choice, I am now 66. Whew! Wow! I am trying so hard to think that is fairly young...the 60's are the new 50's and all that...but it's really NOT young. It's not OLD either, at least to ME it's not. I know the truth is, many folks don't even make it to 66. They never got the chance to experience "aging" like I am possible getting to.
In this picture, I had NO makeup on. It's my flat-out naked face. My hair was even "naked." Look at the gray in the front. That's one thing that's really hard. I'm just NOT ready for gray and my children aren't even ready for me to be gray! Right now, I'm very close to blond with lots of highlights, but I'm not really happy with that. I need richer color. Oh, and look around my mouth. . . parentheses! Yikes! should I get "filler?" Or am I going to "woman up" and just do the best I can with the help of Mary Kay? I am just a MESS about this aging thing. I don't want to LOOK my AGE!! I am so VAIN it is PATHETIC! Forgive me, Lord, please.
I guess I should try to adopt the philosophy of the cartoon person, Maxine. She doesn't care what people think about the way she looks. She just enjoys her life and LIVES every moment of it with humor. What am I saying? She's a CARTOON! You know what though? Her "cartoon" philosophy brings to mind that of a humorist, writer, and mom I just loved. . .Erma Bombeck. She left us much too soon - a victim of cancer. During her battle she encouraged us all to really LIVE our lives every day that we have. She wasn't concerned any more with minor stuff like I am dealing with. She was fighting to LIVE as long as possible. I remember her response when asked about regrets. She really didn't dwell on the past, but she did feel a bit sad about the "wasted" time she spent worrying about the superficial stuff, like I'm doing right now. And she did regret that she didn't eat more ice cream.
So, there it is. Get over it, Diana. The face does not look youthful any more, but it is a good face, an honest face, and a much-loved-by-many face. Now, I think I will go have some of those luscious-looking/smelling strawberries I bought today, and maybe some ice cream on the side.