A NEW VISION OF AGING

 

It’s been bothering me for quite some time now, but I didn’t know what to do about it, let alone know how to express my feelings about it. I knew what I didn’t like, I just didn’t know what to replace it with. Then after a conversation with a friend, the once blurred picture began to clear and I could finally see the answer. It turned out to be something I already knew but hadn’t applied to this situation.

IN THE MOVIES

Lately when I’ve been watching movies about older women, I have felt a disconnect with how they were portrayed on screen. The women are shown as single, affluent, and successful in their chosen field, who can do whatever they want with their lives. They join book clubs, look for men, and talk about their lives. While all of these things are fine, and quite normal, yet it feels like there is something missing. Women are more than this.

LIVING LONGER

In a time when women live a good 20 or more years longer than ever before in the life of humankind, who are also fit and healthy and capable of doing a great many things. Some women use their gifts to help others. Some travel the world with friends. Again, all good. But a friend of mine actually showed me another way that women can age. When I asked how she envisioned getting older, she said, “For me, it about becoming spirit. I no longer see myself as a body. I become lighter and less concerned about my outer world.” I thought, WOW! I like this vision of aging.

AN IMPROVED VISION

To me this means that as women of this new age, we have the time to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. We no longer must worry about pleasing others. Money is hopefully no longer a factor in our choices. The children are gone, and often so is the husband, either through divorce, separation, or death. Yet even when the husband is still alive, women are looking for something more for themselves. There is a force pushing from deep within that has been too long denied. They want to allow the essence of who they are to flow to the surface and spill out into the world. And in doing so, to make the world a better place for others.

MENTORING

This is our time to be an example to other women who are coming up behind us. We are the mentors who will serve as a guiding light to others through our example. No longer do we have to allow our daughters to put up with people who don’t appreciate them. We can show them how to live a better life by living one ourselves. We can teach them to say “Yes” when the world tells them, “No.”

EVOLVUTION

In the spiritual world, this evolution is called a mutation. It is the evolution of a new species of woman. A woman who is in touch with her inner world -- who trusts her own inner guidance rather than that of the outer world where she is told she is nothing. By now she has learned that this outer world leads to self-destruction through addiction and self-flagellation in order to exist in a world that does not value her. As new age women we have learned through a trial by fire, that we have a right to be happy in a world that tries to keep us under its thumb.

As  new age women, we are evolving, creating a new role model for the world to follow. We can show others that we don’t have to continue to try to fit in to a little box someone else has made for us to be accepted. We can instead, find like-minded others to share the journey with. It is those people who will give us our strength, our confidence, and a way forward toward a better world where we can simply be ourselves and not a version of a skewed-up world that no longer works for us.