WHY ARE MY EARS SO LONG?

Sometimes I look in the mirror expecting to see the body, the face of my youth because I remember her. She’s still in me.” Melody Beattie, Journey to the Heart


Sometime after turning 55 I remember waking up one morning to the birds singing outside my window and the smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen. I believed it was going to be a perfect day until I struggled to my feet, hand on my back and hobbled past the full length mirror on the bedroom door. Eyes still blurry from sleep, I leaned toward the mirror and thought, “Who is that old woman? Am I still in there?” I wondered. (At 61, I don’t wonder any more.)

Then, even before I had my coffee, I remembered something else that made me want to go back to bed. In doing the research for this book I had read that after 50, our tissues start drying out! One reason weight actually drops after 55! (I’m still waiting for that to happen!) And of all things, they tell us that around 65 our noses and ear lobes elongate! Oh my. Floppy ear lobes and long noses! However, our biological clocks tick at wildly different rates and no two women will age in exactly the same way. So, while some of you are drying out and losing weight at age 55, others of you may not experience nose droop until you’re 80!

Not wanting to deal with all this information on my own, I poured myself a cup of coffee and called my friend Deb for some consolation. She listened while I moaned and groaned about my inevitable decline with age and she jokingly replied, “let’s just kill ourselves and be done with it!” That’s one way to end your concern and I don’t recommend it. I think it’s important to have a more upbeat approach, don’t you? So, I’m considering this---when my ears are longer, my dangle earings will swing better and if my nose gets longer at least it will be drier and I won’t have to stoop as far to smell the flowers!