THE GREAT LESSON ON AGING THAT MANY OF US NEVER LEARN.

By Elizabeth

I recently saw a woman I admire being interviewed on a television talk show. She has a birthday coming up, so the host asked her how she feels about aging.

“I love it,” the woman said, without missing a beat.

You could see this response really took the host aback.

Women in the public eye are often expected to wring their hands about the perils of getting older but this woman wouldn’t play that game.

She smiled, noting the host’s surprise, and said…

“Look, I know myself. And now that I know myself, I don’t suffer any nonsense. There are only three things I’m passionate about: reading books, drinking wine and skiing. Birthdays? I don’t care.”

Here are the three things I did after seeing this clip: I laughed out loud, I sent the link to a bunch of girlfriends, then I really thought about what this woman was saying.

On the one hand, she’s joking of course.

She’s being asked a question we as women are all used to being asked, one where we’re supposed to apologize for ourselves and display our discomfort at committing the cardinal sin of getting older. So, she’s deflecting. She’s using humor to lighten the moment.

But she’s also being totally sincere.

I don’t mean that this woman really thinks of her life’s passions as reading, wine, and skiing. (Although maybe she does, in which case good for her!)

What I mean is that there is something profound about the mental exercise of creating that kind of list. And there is something deeply wise about the experience, self-knowledge and maturity that leads you to make such a list in the first place.

One of the great lessons of aging—and this is part of why it’s so tragic that we are constantly told to fear getting older—is simplicity.

The more you live, the less you indulge in what this woman rightly calls the “nonsense” that surrounds us, always vying for our attention.

It’s all the things that don’t truly matter, and particularly, the things that don’t truly matter to you.

After I sent the clip to my friends, and after we all laughed, we started instinctively making our own lists and sending them around to each other.

One friend wrote: travel, walking and food.

Another said her three passions were animals, mountain towns and trees.

A group thread was formed. And then we started editing. The first friend wanted to add fashion instead of food.

The second friend said she wanted to think about it some more and then revise hers.

My list kept changing, as well.

I started with animals, nature and culture, but I found myself expanding on what “culture” means to me.

I noted that it’s about engaging actively with beauty in this world, whether that means enjoying a great museum or traveling to a place I have never been before or reading a novel.

A day or two later, the conversation was still going.

Our lists had expanded and contracted, and, although no list felt final, we all felt like we had a new kind of clarity about what we live for and why.

We all felt armed with a new kind of permission to embrace that truth, whatever it is.

So what would go on your “Passions” list? I encourage you to give it some thought.

Once you do, you might find all the other “nonsense” surrounding you at this age doesn’t matter nearly as much as you thought it did.

Elizabeth is a journalist who has been writing about health, beauty and wellness for over 20 years. Elizabeth now writes for our worldwide community of confident, pro-age women at BOOM! by Cindy Joseph. At BOOM!, we believe that age is beauty—and we design makeup and skincare to celebrate that beauty. Check out what we do below.