RECOGNISING BEAUTY FOR WHAT IT IS - AT WHATEVER AGE!

Miss Piggy probably said it best:

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder 

and it may be necessary from time to time 

to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye."

But let's seriously consider it.  It's a very old sentiment which has been around since the 3rd century and while many men have included that sentiment in their work (Shakespeare for one), the actual quotation "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" was first seen in print in 1878.  Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (nee Hamilton) who wrote many books often under the pseudonym of "The Duchess" wrote "Molly Bawn" in 1878 and used the phrase "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

And the saying and the meaning behind the saying is as pertinent today as it was when first penned.

You only have to look at the animal world to see that it's true.  Mothers just adore their off-spring and it's the same with us.  A new born babe will bring oohs and aahs and sighs of delights.

Take your surroundings - things of beauty dazzle our eyes every moment of every day.  Beautiful flowers, extraordinary sunsets.  The moon reflected on the water.  The sight of Uluru after it has rained.  The sound of a country stream merrily singing as it travels down a hillside.  The quietness and beauty of the forest.   Tiny little insects - ladybirds and the like, small birds learning to fly; the snuffling of a wombat.   We will spend time just watching their antics and movements.  Funny little kittens and puppy dogs.  Even little children as they try to walk and in doing so keep toppling over.

It's not only young things that are beautiful.  Oh yes, the body of a "gorgeous" young woman will bring similar oohs and aahs and in fact will convince other young women that they should emulate the beauty defined by the media while those of us who are older, smile and remember!

As far as "beauty" is concerned, where does that leave the growing older woman?  Or the woman in her prime - the 70s, 80s and 90s?

It's weird, but men seem to be besotted and enamoured by battered old rusty cars or utes.  They'll spend hours longingly cleaning them and doing them up.  But what do they do when their girl-friends or wives grow a little old and rusty?  Trade 'em in for a later model.  Crazy!

They may even cunningly suggest that she's let herself "go" and could do with a bit of Botox (or not!) which should be taken with a grain of salt.  What do you really want botox for?  To hide the life-experiences that show the world that you've lived?  We should never be taken for granted or persuaded to change our looks merely for the sake of "looking younger".  Why?  The hands and neck will tell the story anyway and no botox will help those areas.

(And anyway, do most of us actually KNOW what Botox is?  It is made from "botulinum toxin type A", a poison produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism, a severe form of food poisoning. 

Botox is injected into the muscles used in frowning and raising the eyebrows to paralyze them and thus smooth out the wrinkles. Common side effects of Botox injection include droopy eyebrow or eyelid, headache, respiratory infection, flu syndrome, and nausea.)

To be continued .....

RETURNING TO THE FOLD

Introduction:   It is now 2020, some 5 years since I posted on this blog.  I'm not sure where the years have gone, of what I've done in betweentimes. However, we are now faced with the Coronavirus, and because this is something that we've not had to face before, (and history is quiet on this score as well), we are doing our best. 

With that said, I've decided to bring my blog up to date, with how an 80 plus year old, is dealing with this situation.   So please read on.

As we confront the Coronavirus pandemic, I’m sure you, like me,  are facing the prospects of very limited  availability of food and essentials, as the shops empty before the shelves have even been filled.  People are panic-buying and even fighting over articles in the supermarkets.  Anger is present in the process.    

As a consequence of my health and circumstances, and again like many thousands of others, I’ve been relying on shopping for my groceries On-Line, however both Coles and Woolworths are today advising that this facility is being “temporarily” cancelled in order to concentrate on the elderly and vulnerable, by which apparently they mean nursing homes, not older and vulnerable people who are striving to be independent.  What this actually means we have yet to find out.

Up until a fortnight ago I was able to catch the small village bus here to go to the nearest shopping centre Forest Hills a number of kms away, where I would purchase one or two articles which were not heavy to carry, but because the shops are almost empty before the bus arrives at the shopping centre, there is a big question mark as to how the older people are really coping.   This is where prayer for others comes into our thinking, for there are always people worse off than ourselves.

As you all know I do not “post” on FaceBook, and tend to rely on emails.   So I’d like to write a small sentence or two about something that happened to me this morning.

Riding my scooter across to the large Chemist Warehouse situated near where I live, I managed to buy a couple of “women’s essentials”, and learned that there was a limit placed upon them.   I accepted that because as I said earlier, there are many other people who need these items as much if not more than myself.   However, as I was coming out of the store, a delightful young lady who’d been behind me in the store, stopped me, and quietly asked, “Would you like me to get you another pack?”   I replied in the affirmative, and said that would be so kind of her.   Some minutes later she came out of the store, and placed TWO packs in my scooter basket.  I began handing her the money, but she said, “No, no thank you, it's a small gift.”   It took some convincing for her to accept a few dollars to put towards a cup of coffee for herself.    I sat there after she had left me to go to her car, unable to move, because of emotions that filled me.  It was her genuine kindness that had affected me.   

Little things.  But in the scheme of things for someone growing older and with increased loss of mobility, a very big thing.  

We are hearing through the media of so many negative stories.   Negativeness has a dreadful habit of dragging us down.   So when something positive occurs, it behoves us to share the story.

Have you recently had something positive done or said to you?   Would you care to share it?    

You see, people are beginning to get scared.   The drought, followed by the dreadful bushfires that raged through six States of this country for the five months from August through December, when people  lost their homes, their businesses, their farms, their orchards, and livestock,  to then be faced with the Coronavirus from January, has left people feeling insecure.   

“Lifting" each other by sharing positive stories is one way we can show that we care for each other.

'til next time