One of the humbling things about getting older is watching my face change. I am currently revamping my website which calls for an updated photo.

In my mind I look about 5-10 years younger that what the actual photo reveals. Add to that the fact that I am my own worst critique and it has been an enlightening experience to face this reality.

Yes, I am aging, and I am younger now than I will ever be again. The drama and wear-and-tear of my life leaves its imprint more and more in the lines on my face.

Painter Georgia O’Keefe said that she loved the lines in her face—to her they represented a lived well lived.

In our youth-obsessed culture, we are lead to believe that as youth leaves us, it is all down hill from here.

But the gift of the second-half of life allows us to put down the intense competing and striving, and seek the mysterious and wondrous in life—to find magnificence in the tiny crawling creature or the fragrant lilac, whose bloom lasts for a moment in time, to appreciate the slow unfolding of the oak leaf, or the colorful ribbons of light given us by the setting sun.

It’s a time to look deeper within ourselves to what really matters—a shift from the outer worldly concerns of physical beauty to the subtle inner world of discovering what truly holds value for us in our life.

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, 
but beautiful old people are works of art.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

And then to align our time and energy so that we are an expression of those values—love, beauty, connection, peace, generosity, creativity, wisdom, and community.

To live a life well lived.