The dominant culture lies about aging. Losing my youth is one of the best things that’s happened to me. In spite of some devastating personal and global circumstances, my brief time in my 40s has been fucking wonderful.
I’m kinder, wiser, and more present than I’ve ever been. Grandiose narratives that always led to disappointment are being replaced by a compassionate engagement with what is. I know and love myself and other people and the earth better. I have less to prove and more to appreciate. I’m less objectified and this is freeing up my subjective experience. I do work that has meaning to me and I’m respected in it. I’m increasingly connected to my ancestors.
The human life course can be very hard, and we live in a world that makes it much harder than it ought to be. But clinging to youth isn’t the answer. So much more becomes available to us when we loosen our grip on what we think we should be and open ourselves to what we are: creatures who need care and are here, miraculously, for only a brief time.