Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…Yikes!
My daughter decided I need improvement in my appearance. This from an outgoing, beautiful young woman who wakes up looking like the Cinderella mice and birdies have been working on her all night. She knows I’m an introvert, preferring to live in my head, quietly, mostly at home, in an effort to feel as stress-free as possible. Unfortunately, my lack of confidence has blossomed while quarantining. I realize that after the pandemic, trying to go out into the world again will require putting my best foot forward. If only working on that foot was all it would take. She pointed out that a certain amount of change in personal grooming might boost my confidence in a post-pandemic re-emergence. Not to try to look younger (as though!) but just to be the best version of me.
During her recent visit, not more than a day had passed when she handed me a long list of self-improvement points. How lucky am I? An apprehensive scan of the list:
Hair
Skin
Teeth
Makeup
Microblading
Clothes donations
Rigorous exercise program
Socializing
This list was so overwhelming (although well intentioned!) that it made me want to hide in the aforementioned boring clothes closet. I’m not averse to self-improvement. At 67 I’ve let some things slip, but this list was dizzying!
Improvements to my house during quarantining had worked out well (thank you Marie Kondo!) so it was time to move on to me. Dramatically changed my diet and am losing not only a great deal of weight but intestinal discomfort and back pain, although the more I lose the more I resemble a Shar-Pei. So I was open to her encouragement for other changes in my appearance - but damn! Was nothing about me acceptable? She would say - Mom! You know I love you! Now let’s get going!
Red-lining the list: unless she could beg a favor from her Fairy Godmother there were some things that just wouldn’t be happening. Told her I would be uncomfortable going to a tattoo parlor for embellishing my non-existent eyebrows, with bikers getting ink of naked women, barbed wire or “Mom”. When she stopped laughing she explained that you go to lovely beauty salons for microblading. I may be a little out of the loop. Rigorous exercise with a great deal of sweat is out of the question. Because tap dancing didn’t work out I’ve been riding my 93 year old mother’s castoff recumbent bike. Doesn’t that count?
My daughter went back home and I remain a work in progress. I’m trying: learned how to better style my hair, will be wearing nightly aligners on my teeth for the next 8 months and sticking to a new skin care regimen with Retinol slathered everywhere. I’m experimenting with new makeup for older women (less is more) and eating mostly plant based foods. I’m slowly replacing LLBean clothes with Soft Surroundings in an effort to appear a little more feminine, or at least not always ready to feed the livestock. A SilverSingles profile may be in my future but that won’t be until I’m ready to emerge from my pandemic cocoon, where I hope to have changed from Marty Feldman’s hunchback Igor (what hump?) to Christine Ebersole (we are the same age, so I’m hoping to look like we were separated at birth but that may be a stretch). I used to think being clean was enough. Apparently not...
There has been progress. The downside is that it takes quite a bit of time to leave the house or prepare for a Zoom meeting. But I’m grateful my daughter gave me the nudge (shove) to start taking care of my appearance, and therefore confidence, again. My best foot forward may be steppin’ out. How about you? Have you made any changes you’d like to share? Of course, just emerging healthy from this quarantine would be the greatest blessing of all.