Back on the clean slate thing...

Back on the Clean Slate thing again… Well, yes, my slate is clean… but, what was on it “before?” Obviously, some of the things will have to stay on the slate… being a mother and inhabiting my own skin are not going away. Being wife to my husband, living in our home, and enjoying my friends are things I want to stay on the slate. I would argue that, even though these things seem the same, they have or are changing, too.

On being a mother, I am now about to be a grandmother. My role is officially being bumped up a grade. Yes, I know, my children have been grown for a good while… but, this makes it hard for me to deny. =) I like thinking of my children as my babies. Though I believe either of them would attest that I have always strongly encouraged them to stand on their own. The greatest gift and the biggest job we have as parents is teaching our children self-competence. I say competence, not confidence, because I believe passionately that confidence comes from competence. Competence comes from doing: trying, failing, succeeding. (That belief will still be on the slate.) You can’t do it for them.

My own skin… hmmmm… that sagging, wrinkling, age-spotting thing that covers my body. I don’t even recognize myself sometimes! LOL. The Clean Slate will obviously not have wrinkle-free body-covering! You know you are there when people begin to tell you, “You look good for your age.” On to another aspect of the body, I have always been very active. One of the biggest things I had to let go of was being a person who could and would run 20 miles at four in the morning to have time to walk and carry my bag for 36 holes of golf. Not on the Slate.

One thing for certain, I need a vision of life on this Clean Slate. Without a vision and direction, we drift aimlessly. That’s okay for awhile. But, I’m not down with that indefinitely. Self-fulfilling prophecy is a powerful influence on our lives. One day I will post about turning forty and how strongly I experienced that effect. For today, I am going to begin to visualize The Woman of a Certain Age I desire to become.