Dear Reader:

It took me awhile of growing and loving, to finally realize we don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward in life, we just have to keep taking that leap of faith.

What makes us unique and different is our strength! In order to grow older, like trees, we have to have weathered the storms along the way by digging deeper roots… now bring on that next storm!

Obviously we don’t do it alone… but as Dame Judy Dench ( with her inbred wit and wisdom) wrote down ( after a young man asked her how it felt to be old) she scripted ” GETTING OLD IS A GIFT.”

Humorously she listed several freedoms that ” being old” provided… if you kept a sense of humor!

Even though the person staring back at her in the mirror these days startles and surprises her… she has become quite fond of her.

Gray hair and a drooping stomach are just fine… no interest in trading them in for a younger version. She doesn’t scold herself for being messy, likes occasionally to overspend on herself with no guilt, and can stare at flowers for hours -time well spent.

She has seen too many dear friends leave the world before enjoying the freedoms that come with age. There’s nobody to tattle on you if you decide to stay on the computer or read all night… and then sleep all day!

She’s not embarrassed to wear a frumpy bathing suit while the bikini girls shake their heads in pity- she knows that time ( if they are lucky) will put them in frumpy swim suits too one day.

On a more serious note… Dame Judy Dench concludes that it is suffering that gives us strength and makes us grow. An unbroken heart is sterile, and will never know the happiness of imperfection. “

And finally… Dench smiles with her final words of wisdom. ” I’m not going to regret what wasn’t, nor worry about what may be. In the time that remains… I will simply love life, the rest I leave to God.”

So until tomorrow

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh