It Is Up To Us

When people go around looking and feeling negative about their age they do everyone, and especially themselves, a disservice. If we are relatively pain free, have enough to eat and a roof over our heads, why are so many of us determined to radiate an air of misery and martyrdom?

In this world brimming with people, loneliness is optional, not essential.  As the Buddhists teach, ‘Today is the best day of your life’. Why not make the most of it? Smile at people. Some may think it is the sign of galloping dementia, but just maybe, someone we smile at will feel better for it, and it will have done good to both of the giver and the receiver.

Smiling exercises many of the facial muscles that lift the sagging contours and fight the downward pull of gravity. This in time will create nice new wrinkles and creases, rather than frown lines and down-turned mouths. Presenting this new face to the world one will not only look better but feel better too. The unexpected glimpse of myself in that mirror will no longer shock me to the core but reflect the ‘me’ I know I am. The warm expression will radiate the image of someone worth getting to know. – And who can tell what new doors that will open?

Today could be the start of a new beginning. Let each succeeding day be just as good. It is up to us to make it happen.

From Images© by VM.  Shared with the author’s permission.