Being Over 50: A Woman’s Reflection on the Badassery of Aging Well
I grabbed my BFF on our 49th birthdays (which are within two days of each other) and headed to the tattoo parlor. She got a belly button ring with an amethyst gem, and I got my first tattoo, a dragonfly. It was freedom we were celebrating; the feeling that life was only just getting started in a bigger, badassier way.
I’ve done a few more crazy things since then; the craziest things all occurring after I turned 50. Why the fearlessness all of a sudden? I think a midlife healing crisis culminates in a sort of unfuckwithableness. When you feel it coming on, it’s hard to stop. You’ll never give it up once it’s upon you. You’re less afraid to die, and more afraid you haven’t quite totally lived yet. And there’s a fire within that burns until you get into action with that living.
It wasn’t until I turned 50 that I finally sought after and experienced moments that made me feel the most alive.
Aging has been a battle between what the media shows me I should look and be like and the real, authentic wisdom, connection, and magic that occurred after arriving in my 50th year and beyond. Guess what? That second thing won, by far, in my book. I’d never go back to the 20 or 30 somethings, not even for that pre-childbirth body.
