“Do you have anything for wrinkles?” the woman asked me, leaning over the cosmetics counter and looking at the bottles filled with lotions and potions.
“Our skincare program is the best place to start,” I said, indicating our three-step regimen and then picking up another bottle. “In addition, this moisturizer will help reduce the appearance of tiny, fine lines.”
If my sales trainer could have heard me then, she would have been so pleased. “Never say the word ‘wrinkles’,” she had told our class of trainees. “Instead, use the phrase ‘tiny, fine lines.’”
I'm pretty sure I gave a mental shrug over what to me was just semantics. After all, I was a 21-year-old college student. I had no lines—fine or otherwise.
Girl with Butterfly statue at Gibbs Garden
German novelist and short story writer Franz Kafka said, "Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."
Kafka often wrote about existential and surrealist themes, so I'm surprised that this quote came from him. But I like it nonetheless.
And growing old in my mind at the moment, since I recently had a birthday and I’ve had fine lines of my own for a while now.
Birthday beauty
As I look back on my many-ish years, one thing I know is this: I want to keep that ability to see the beauty around me. I want to actively look for beauty, keep my eyes open for the unexpected, and cultivate a childlike sense of wonder.
I don’t want to become jaded or hard, cynical or bored. Lord forbid.
Rather, I want a heart that will always be moved by things like waterfalls, water lily paintings, and Handel’s Water Music.
A heart that will always be grateful for Beauty, with a desire to share it with others. Like you.
Two questions to choose from today: What's your favorite thing about growing older? Or, as you look back on your life, what is one thing you know now? Let me know in the comments below.
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