Aging is a Privilege⁠✨

Did you know that the characters in “The Golden Girls” were supposed to be in their early 50s? ⁠As a woman in her late 50’s I would describe myself as many things but not one of them would be synonymous with Blanche, Rose, Dorothy, or Sophia despite how much I loved the show.⁠
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Western vocabulary lacks a revered word to describe women my age. The word “crone” is quite the antithesis of what seasoned women want to be called. We are the wisdom keepers, mothers, businesswomen and so much more, yet our dictionary falls short of a term encompassing all these qualities for women of my generation. Although aging sometimes has a negative connotation that people dread, it gives you a tremendous perspective on life and how to walk through the world. Unfortunately, society deems women of a certain age invisible and seems to criticize aging women as harsher than men.⁠I am here to call BS on that narrative!

I have achieved more as a fifty-something-year-old woman than my former 20-year-old model self would have dreamed possible. ⁠Your dreams and accomplishments do not stop once you hit a certain age. Aging comes with innate truths that only living years of life and vast experiences can reveal. ⁠

The passage of time gives one perspective, strength, and a different type of confidence in how one carries themself in the world. ⁠As we age we trade the currency of youth for a different currency; wisdom, something I cherish and share with my patients who belong to various generations.

East Asian medicine teaches how to decelerate, not reverse, the aging process. It teaches patients how to think long-term how to care for and keep the body and mind as they are interconnected. Ladies, what you do in your teens, 20’s, 30’s, and even ’40s has a profound influence on how you well-age. ⁠While my body may not look like it used to when I was younger, it is an honor and a privilege to wake up each day and realize I am just getting started. ⁠

“Aging is not a problem to be fixed or a disease. It is a naturally powerful, lifelong process that unites us all”.⁠
Ashton Applewhite.⁠