June 30th, the day the calendar year ends, the day contracts expire, the fiscal year ends… that is the day I made my appearance into this world! This June 30th was my 56th birthday and an idea popped into my head: I’m going to get a photo shoot done on my birthday. And I did. My friend and amazing photographer Jesse Lane Sparrow (artsbysparrow@gmail.com) and I went to the Yew Dell Botanical Gardens (http://www.yewdellgardens.org/main-page.html). I took two dresses with me, and put on the floral one and off we went in search of beautiful vistas in which to take the pictures. And we found many. This is a beautiful place, it was my first time there, but surely not my last. I celebrate my age with these pictures. This is the youngest I will ever be and I am enjoying it. And I tell myself that we are beautiful, no matter what our age. In our teens and twenties, we had the beauty of a freshly blooming rose. In our 30’s and 40’s, we were like the old fashioned cabbage roses. And now in our 50’s, we continue blooming. We are so fortunate to be alive, vibrant, beautiful, and full of wisdom. Having lived 56 years, and having gone through many burdensome and sad things, I feel I have matured and become wise, although I still have a very young spirit. I feel the freedom from many things that comes with age, freedom from obsessing about my looks, my weight, being “popular,” and freedom from having to prove myself.

And the take home message here is:

Ladies, own your beauty! No matter what age you are, as we live healthier and take better care of ourselves, age, truly is only a number! Be proud of your age. As witty and wonderful as Oscar Wilde was, this quote from one of his plays seems quite outdated now: “One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would do that would tell anything.” Ha! Yes, and what of it! We will tell our age, and we will tell anything else that we want to. Like our ideas about life, longevity, beauty, family and all things important to us!

PS: I love Maleficent, don’t you?