On Almond Chai Tea Lattés and Aging with Confidence
Min’s Morning Brew: A homemade almond milk Rishi chai latté steamed to about one hundred and forty degrees. Rishi brand Masala Chai Concentrate is the best chai I’ve ever had. My favorite local Pakistani restaurant, Chit Chaat, serves it, and got hooked. My bulk order of it has been on backorder for several months, and this morning’s cup was the last of my supply. I treasured every ounce! This lament isn’t sponsered by Rishi, but it ought to be considering my level of devotion.
Today’s Tarot Deck: Disney’s Alice in Wonderland Tarot Deck and Guidebook
Today’s Tarot Card: The Page of Cups
Today’s Thoughts: On Aging and Confidence
I touched up my dye job recently with a bottle of Good Dye Young in Mossy Green. As I was applying my morning skincare routine, I noticed that the strands of my hair that have greyed didn’t take the dye. I examined a few of them, and it stuck me how beautiful they are. Who convinced us to hate these glittering, sparkling strands? They’re beautiful! Nature’s hair tinsel. I’m genuinely enamored with them. I admire grey hair on others, too. I follow a remarkable woman called Julia Butterfly Hill, an environmental activist who lived in a redwood tree for 738 days in order to save it. She’s aged nearly thirty years since her tree-dwelling days, and made a post on Instagram sort of lamenting those changes, albeit from a very thoughtful point of view. Julia is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen, and even she gets down about aging. Why do we hate the natural process so much?
Women aren’t allowed to age in our society. It’s seen as something shameful. People fill their faces with injections and paralyze their muscles to prevent it, and more power to them if they want to do that, honestly. We should all be allowed to do whatever we want with our own physical vessels. But the pressure to remain ever-young is so great because multiple billion dollar industries profit off of our insecurities. Makeup, skincare, supplements, wellness products, etc. Brands advertise creams to fill wrinkles, makeup to hide age spots and fine lines, supplements to promote collagen production and a youthful appearance, wellness products to “fix” our complexions, etc. The advertisements are never-ending and each one drills into our collective psyche a clear message: “You need to look the way you did in your late teens/early twenties throughout your life, or else.”
Bodies aren’t permanent. They were never supposed to be. They change, they grow, they become damaged and broken and altered, and then they fail irreparably one day and we die. Nothing alive is exempt from these conditions, so why do we expect such exemption of women?
Something that’s helped me shut up the voice in the back of my mind telling me to get an upper bleph is this: Look at the older women you admire and love, be they celebrities, family, or friends. Judi Dench. Maggie Smith. Miriam Margoyles. Imelda Staunton. Do you analyze their features, judging their signs of aging? Or do you think they’re each beautiful in their own unique ways? Does their age make you think any less of them? I suspect your responses to those questions will be similar to my own. We don’t judge what society perceives as age-related “flaws” in others, so why are we so harsh with ourselves? We oughtn’t be! We’re all dynamic, interesting, beautiful creatures in our own rights, and whether or not we have skin sagging and crow’s feet doesn’t detract from any of that. No one of worth is judging us by those things. Those who do aren’t the sort of people we care to hear advice and opinions from.
Life is so short. Time is constantly passing. Let’s not waste time fretting about something so natural. I, for one, am looking forward to my crone years. I plan on being a sort of Strega Nona with my sparkling silver hair, big nose, and cauldron full of spaghetti. I’ll tend to my pumpkin patch and blow kisses to cast spells. I’ll pass my knowledge to the next generation of witches, just like Strega Nona did. My life will be as full and wonderful as it is now, age spots and sagging and wrinkles and all. Blessed be, indeed.