Embracing the Reality

Forever Young ( If there were a real Fountain of Youth, would you drink the water?)

In the early part of one November, on a Sunday Emma pulls the heavy oak door and steps into the garden. The bare trees stand quietly in a line close to the fence. The lingering petals of the colorful flowers from most of the trees has faded and fallen from their stems. There are brown leaves all over the yard. Slowly Emma meanders through the garden and notices a very pretty deep blue butterfly with yellow dots on the wings, dozing in the crevices of two small rocks.Emma bends down to peek and then whispers to herself, ‘May be the butterfly forgot to leave with the departure of the season’.

On most of the weekends Emma returns home from her favorite body combat class  feeling energetic, fresh and happy. Her to do list for the day starts to jump in her mind like the wild small frogs in the rain. She feels restless like a tapping toe or a wandering eye to do something; she prepares the breakfast, feeds the dog and cat, finishes the laundry,visits the library, runs for the grocery, waters the plants, prepares dinner, takes long evening walk with her daughter and the dogs, and then finally sits down to read and write the blogs. Emma tilts her head onto her clasped hand, toys with her list sitting on the dining chair. It happens for the first time on a Saturday morning. She feels lazy like a pampered honey bee and notices something different in her body; like the small aches and pains in the joints; a little difficulty in punching or doing the back kicks in the class, urge to sit in one place for more than ten minutes after a long day of work, even some-days she decides not to write but just to read the blogs of her friends and post comments.

One morning while cleaning the big mirrors of the bathroom Emma stops. She stands straight, swipes the hairs from her forehead,adjusts her eye-glass on her nose and looks at her face closely on the mirror, which she has not done for a long time. She traces her finger on the small crows feet at the corner of her eyes, long laugh-lines around her  mouth, then with mix of bewilderment and shock she leans more closer to the mirror, pulls her finger through her long black hair and notices the small white hairs; some are hiding nicely and a few brave ones are trying to emerge from the top. ‘Wow! I  have never noticed so many changes on my face.Hmm’ It must be the age!

Secretly Emma wishes to hold the youth as tight as possible. No body likes the pain that creeps in slowly or brings the dramatic changes in the body. The experiment on holding the youth for a longer time starts either consciously or unconsciously. Otherwise what will happen to the vast market of the different brands of skin care products; eye- cream, face creams, brown-spot removers, gel to tighten the eye, creams to clear the face and lift , hair colors to hide the whites. Just like the millions of women Emma has tried to stay young but only with the organic home made products. Some days she uses different fruits on her face, other days nuts, milk, honey or yogurts.

Emma breezes into the room with a shine to her cheeks. Somewhere she reads about the ‘Fountain of youth‘ and can not stop laughing. She looks at her fifteen years old tabby who stretches out on the Persian rug beneath her feet and purrs gently, slowly age had made him more gentler. Even on the other day Emma met the older lady who lives in the second house to her left. She has started to complaint about aging after taking so many vitamins, nutritious food and exercise. That  night after dinner, while drying her face in the small white towel Emma looks at the mirror and smiles. Today she likes her crows feet, the laugh lines and the white hairs. She tips her head back slightly and murmurs’ You look lovely for your age’. Aging gracefully is fine. She does not want to defy the nature.Just like the change in the nature, the human body goes through the same cycle; from infant to childhood, from youth to old age and every part of the life is fabulous and enjoyable. Emma prefers to do yoga, meditation and stay active rather than drinking the water from the Fountain of Youth which is not an option at all.

“The wiser mind mourns less for what age takes away than what it leaves behind.” William Wordsworth 

         

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