Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Brows Don't Lie

I think my best physical feature is my eyebrows.  Lately, they've delivered an unwelcome message:  you're old.

I've paid regular attention to my brows since my early 20's.  Never one to be able to put up with the stinging of the pluck, I've been a waxer - once a month, at least.  My well-groomed brows gave me confidence - always natural looking, but accentuating my eyes.

However, since 40, I see my (usually Russian) waxer much less often than I used to, because I don't need to.  How is that possible?  Three weeks of neglect usually sent me running to the salon to shape the hedges!  Here's how - I'm aging.  My eyebrows are thinning (I recently bought my first eyebrow pencil ever to help fill them in ) and that's just the beginning.  My hair is graying, my skin is sagging, my wrinkles are deepening - it's just getting harder to avoid these obvious signs.

And since I consider myself a woman of substance whose brain and soul have been given at least as much attention as my eyebrows, I am surprised at how much it hurts.  I wouldn't be 20 again if you paid me, but I'd really like that 20 year old's body back.  I never appreciated it while I had it (you know the adage:  "Youth is wasted on the young."), but I know it'd be different now.  I'd stop picking it apart and complaining about being fat and how my breasts are too small and my legs too short.  I looked hot back then (pictures bear this out), but I didn't know it or I chose to not see it.

This makes me wonder if I can really see myself now.  Do I look okay (for 40-ish) and will I someday look back on pictures of now and think, "why didn't I appreciate that when I had it?". Hmmm... probably.  Hindsight (even with nicely accentuated eyes) is 20/20.

1 comment:

  1. You were hot at 20, and you're hotter now. A little bit of maturity becomes you. I'm sure you'll look even better as time goes by. Not that you'll ever believe it when we tell you -- but it's the truth.

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