Folks, the fountain of youth does exist

 

I recently ran into a lovely woman whom I hadn’t seen in 10 years or more. Retired but fierce, she’s living her best life, helping her community and beyond. It was wonderful to catch up with her, to talk about her son and other joys in her life.

At one point, she looked at me and said, “Kelley, you never age! You only grow more beautiful.”

Folks, her words stopped my heart.

When you’re constantly battling menopausal weight gain, dark age spots and wrinkles busting out everywhere, sore joints and hot flashes, you don’t feel beautiful.

You feel fat.

Ugly.

Tired.

Mad at the world.

I am - by no means - a perfect person.

But I truly believe how we live and the choices we make and the words we say are reflected in our faces.

If you have spite in your soul and hatred in your heart? That $hit will age you every damn day.

But if you live with empathy, with kindness, with the knowledge that not everyone comes from privilege, with the understanding that how people live their lives won’t affect your own happiness, without fear of differences in skin color or religion? If you understand a person’s worth isn’t tied to the balance in their bank account?

Folks, the fountain of youth does exist.

But you won’t find it in a jar, in an injection or on an operating table.

It’s been inside you all along.

Maybe the real secret to aging gracefully isn’t in what we fight against but in what we nurture. The lines on our faces tell stories - of laughter, of forgiveness, of choosing grace over anger.

When we live with love, curiosity and compassion, the world sees it. And that, my friends, is a kind of beauty no mirror can truly capture.

Turns out, the face you wear is the life you’ve lived. So live kindly. Live gently. Live with joy.

It’ll show.