Reinvention . . .

"Don't ever feel like the best days are behind you.
Reinvention is the purest form of hope.
​Make today your best day yet."   
                                                                                                                                                   - Phil Wohl

This quote speaks to me of 'reinventions' on many levels:
​Internal, professional, geographical . . . even physical.
I was born a brunette. At the early age of twenty-eight, silver strands started weaving their way through my brown tresses. In my mid-thirties, I slowly started making the transition to blonde and I've, primarily, maintained this color until this last winter. Inspired to embrace the changing seasons of my life, I cropped off my hair to about an inch from my scalp and I'm impatiently waiting for it to grow out. 

Mae West is noted as saying that, " growing old is not for the faint of heart."

I do not think of myself as old nor do I feel old. But there is no denying the physical evidence staring back at me when I look in the mirror - I am aging;
lines are forming, jowls are distinct, silver crowns my head.
My goal is to reinvent my 'ideas'
(that do not serve me well)
on the aging process, on growing older. 

In the last eight months, five people I know have died.
I do not yet consider that I am close to the 'finish line' personally, but interfacing so closely with death these past months has set me to thinking -
and the main thought that plays upon my mind is that . . . I finish strong.  

My reinvention of the 'over the hill' concepts in my psyche is still in its evolution. But to summarize a few points that stand out as I observe others grapple with aging;
it is important to me that I maintain:
A Joyful & A Grateful Heart
Mental Acuity
Physical Strength
A Contented & Adventurous Spirit 
 And that I continually bear in mind that though life is often messy, it is also glorious.