As I peered in the mirror early one morning, I was surprised to see this old woman looking back at me. Now anyone that has gone past their mid-thirties will know that something NOT so magical happens when you go to sleep from 35 years on, and my face was starting to show signs of it.
One of my best friends, Laura Ceppelli, calls it her “F*ck What Happened to My Face” moment, when you see the sleep tram lines weaving their way across your face, knowing full well it could take until lunchtime for the creases to drop out as you stand and contemplate, whether it´s worth smoothing them out with a good foundation or staying hidden until the afternoon.
As women age things happen to our whole body, not just our face. For those mothers reading this you will know that after you have had kids your pelvic floor is never quite the same either, no trampolining that´s for sure, then we have the hair that takes on a mind of its own, going from straight to curly, from thick to thin and from a vibrant colour to a bland spotted type of gray and then to top it off, our superpower kicks in.
Not a cool superpower like flying, or maybe ultra-strength, no, we are gifted with the joy of invisibility to add to the list of things not to look forward to as we age. Whether in the workplace or walking down the street, we find once we get to a certain age, we seem to be able to disappear completely, merging like a chameleon into the background.
Now on the one hand there can be that inner longing for things to be the way they used to be, but as our whole life can start to shift on it´s axis during midlife from empty nesting, to elderly parents, aging body and all the good bits in between, invisibility can be turned to our advantage.
Invisibility allows us the perfect period of individuation where we can start to look within, to decide whether the woman we have become through following the programming of society is really who we want to be, as we start to tap back into the spirit and full potential of who we really are.
The dreams, the desires, the inner knowing that we were put on this planet to be more, do more and achieve more. That the inner unlimited potential that we have been stuffing down all of our lives is now about to take flight like the butterfly coming out of the chrysalis in all its multi-faceted glory.
Our superpower of invisibility is just a cover up, to give us time to embrace all of our superpowers as we step into the world and truly make our mark, no more abiding by the rules, no more dimming our light or hiding our gifts under a bushel…. Now is our time, this is our space, and this is our YEAR.