She Sees

Perhaps this is my attempt at poetry or prose.  Maybe it is a lot of thoughts after reading, "Face" by Justine Bateman and listening to a  podcast interviewing  Ashton Applewhite on Ageism but since April is National Poetry Month and the home of Earth Day, this is where I begin. 

Let's remove the filters from our lives and expose our hard one faces. Let's not diminish our worth based on the preservation of our bodies but use our minds to share the wisdom it has gathered to have the conversations, write the poems and stories that give true representation of growing older, and let us not  erase ourselves from our own culture.  The world deserves to see you at every stage of life, to know that you are thriving and that growing old should not be feared but revered and celebrated. Let's take our cues from nature, and flow with effortless ease into what has the potential to be the most majestic phase of our life.

She Sees  by  CMH

 She whispers the word aging just loud enough to be embraced by the wind and carried off through the treetops

 Who take it to mean wisdom, majesty, and grace

As it filters back to her she hears fear, shame, decaying, and death 

She swallows the aftertaste, bitter and real

Where have the crones, the sages, the wise women gone

Our elders commanding the respect of nature; the oceans, rivers, mountains, and forests

Standing now amongst creation, our natural world

She is reminded of the receding river banks

The sand dune's slow transformation

The changing forms of the creatures of the land and sea

The forests that house the most remarkable of trees that bow to the grace of the most aged 

She sees so much beauty that comes through time

What she witnesses is the ease with which  it happens

No efforts made to prolong or extinguish the process

Nature just seems to know everything is growing more magnificent in its fullest of life

 In the grandeur of age

Is she too not a part of this cycle of life

When she sees her reflection coming back from the water below

She witnesses the quiet freedom in her own eyes to be authentically who she is in this time and space

She sees all those she has loved and supported with her soft crinkly, welcoming eyes

The sparkle and zest for life that penetrates the intimate gaze of another 

And lights the path for the strong women she has raised

She sees the smile lined and creased in the way you know it was used often to share compassion, joy, and community with so many

She sees the face that has been drawn to the light, the warmth emanating from the sun, the beauty of nature

The wind continues to whisper now but this time she hears

Zoom in, get close, look deep

This is where beauty meets age

Where wisdom tells her story

 And gratitude arises for this privilege to be here

Now

This is what living a real and vulnerable life

 Full of experiences, on the edge of fearlessness, courage, and strength lives.