Can't you see....You have....everything your heart desires...

My husband puts such a big smile on my face!!!!

"Those shoes look pretty on you....I wish I could wear something like that.  I'd fall off the heels!"  


I turned to see who was speaking and saw that it was a well dressed older woman looking at me from the end of the shoe aisle in one of my regular thrifting holes.  We struck up a conversation about shoes; both of us agreeing that NEITHER of us needed another pair!  Of course, as we talked we were trying on shoes and gathering up our goodies.  Ms. Unknown said to me, "Oh, I just LOVE shoes!  I have more at home than could fit on these racks!"  I agreed and assured her, that I too, was busting at my shoe seams.  "You know what else I love?" she says.  "JEWELRY!!!"  Ms. Lovely Woman whom I feel like may be my senior doppelganger went on to explain that she loves jewelry because it ALWAYS fits!  BRILLIANT!  That's so true!  And I can certainly share her enthusiasm!


But what I really loved was the promise in her eyes that my love for style probably won't damper with age.  Here she was, probably in her 70s, scouring the shoe section for treasures. I can't tell you how much I LOVE that!  I thought to myself, "That's ME!"  She continues foraging for thrifty treasures because she has a love of pretty things.  I could tell, that like me, she really enjoys being a girl!  How wonderful that that never changes.  That we continue to see ourselves as a young girl, easily excited at the prospect of a new find.  If our children remain our babies in our eyes, regardless of their age; doesn't it make sense that we remain youthful, if not in body then in our mind's eye?


I was speaking with a sweet friend, Joyce, with whom I go to church.  Ms. Joyce is approaching 80 years old and has been married to her husband for 56 years!!  That's AMAZING!  She was relating stories to me of how she and her husband/beau met and courted. She was recounting being a cheerleader and basketball player.  She spoke of it all as if it were just a few weeks ago, when in reality it was basically my mother's lifetime ago (my mother died at 56).  We laughed about how we never see ourselves as old as our age sounds.  In her mind, she is still the same teenage girl who fell in love with a handsome football player.

In my mind, I'm still a goofy 13 year old girl who gets tickled over the most juvenile things.  I still look at others and think, "When will I finally start FEELING mature?  Like I'm a responsible adult with my act together?"  I almost can't help feeling sheepish that I am mother to four kids.....I mean, what in the WORLD made God think that I was (or am now) mature enough to bring them safely to adulthood!?!


The saying is that you're only as old as you feel.  As we age, sometimes things don't move the way they used to.  Stray hairs start growing in odd places and we make all kinds of creaking noises when we move!  So I think of it as, YOU'RE AS YOUNG AS YOU BELIEVE YOURSELF TO BE.  And my Sisters, BELIEVING is a POWERFUL thing!!!