'The wheel is come full circle: I am here'

Says, Edmund in King Lear, one of my least favourite plays of Shakespeare. Why do I quote Shakespeare so often? Because the bard wrote about things that are timeless.

Well, I am not here to discuss him but this thought came to me last night. I had misplaced my reading glasses and I asked my son to look them for me. He said, ‘you need glasses to find your glasses ma’. The answer shocked me. Thirty years ago when my mother started wearing her glasses and losing tem as I do now, this was my statement to her.

How life has come full circle. I find that I am doing things that I had never done. To start with I have started wearing pink. I must have been one of the very few girls who did not like pink. So much so that my trousseau had no pink, orange or red. Now I have 8 saris in different shades of pink, including fuchsia.  I wear bright colours now, I wear make up; something I had never done as a young woman.

But I also have a bunch of staunch loyal girlfriends who are there with a shoulder to lean on when I feel like crying, I say what I want, I choose my own dishes at a restaurant and I don’t care what others think of me. Again something I had never done before. One of the perks of aging I believe.

I have wrinkles and fine lines on my face and I have gray hair, I have put on weight and I am not the model thin girl I used to be, my nails are brittle and I need supplements but I also have more carriage and more grace than I ever had before.

I don’t cook if I don’t feel like it and my husband makes tea for me now. I ask for help in the house and I get it. Perks of aging? Definitely

I love being middle aged. This, I think, is a golden period when a woman comes on her own; she sheds all her inhibitions; when she starts thinking about her also besides her family. She realizes that she is a person in her own right and should be treated so. She has a better understanding of people around her and she can deal with them on her terms. When she can be assertive and people don’t take it amiss. In fact, her boldness is respected, she is taken seriously and she can get away with so many things.

So my middle-aged friends, don’t panic, there is life after 45. In fact,  a better, more fulfilling life. Have a blast

So be it!!!