We all have an image in our mind about who we are and what we look like. But often, that image is something that we have carried for many, many years. We look in the mirror each day but we never really see the person who is staring back at us. And that well-preserved self-image is not always just of our physical appearance.
We become so busy with everyday tasks, to do lists and responsibilities that we never find the time to really stop and mentally reflect on who we are or what we have become. We might have fleeting moments of silence when we slow down enough to realize that we feel lost, sad or as if something is missing, but a moment of self-reflection does little to expose the cause of these feelings. We just shrug it off and just back into the whirlwind of activity that we call our life.
All of this to say, everyone deserves time to decompress and reflect on the person that he or she has become, the choices that have been made and the personal level of satisfaction from those choices. By making the time for this self-evaluation and mental reflection, you are allowing yourself the opportunity to change and grow into you want to be and to find true happiness in your life.
Lovely, and so true. This, to me, is the gift of older age (never old). Old is a state of mind, older is a state of grace. “Now we see through a glass darkly.”—1 CORINTHIANS 13:1, For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known. (For now [in this time of imperfection] we see in a mirror dimly [a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma], but then [when the time of perfection comes we will see reality] face to face. Now I know in part [just in fragments], but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known [by God].)
There is certainly an amazing benefit to becoming comfortable in one’s own skin. In my case, I think I needed the wrinkles and the extra space that they have afforded me to really fit comfortably into my own skin. A part of this settling in has come from having a clear view of my past and seeing that even the times that I thought to be a total failure yielded lessons and benefits. In our youth, we do not have the reassurance of hindsight to see that we really will make it through the challenges. And another important ingredient is faith…in so much beyond myself. In our youth we try to learn to harness our “power” and exert control over all of the forces around us, but as you pointed out, as we age we learn that what we must master is that state of grace to accept the forces around us. There is a higher power and it is not for us to control but to embrace.