I just finished reading a couple of killer articles in O Magazine. The issue focuses on aging. I've been doing a great deal of thinking about getting older, starting to worry about those wrinkles on my neck and be pissed that I didn't appreciate my body when I was in my 20's. I now realize I spent an entire decade thinking I was fat and unattractive and now would do anything to have the body back then that I despised. My favorite articles were written by Anne Lamott and Molly Ivins.

Lamott writes about going shopping with her fatally ill friend, who was dying at the age of 37. She was in a wheelchair, with a wig and three weeks to live. Anne tried on a short dress and came out to model it and asked her friend if she thought it made her thighs look fat. Her reply, "Annie, you just don't have that kind of time." We beat ourselves up for years about our cellulite and our fat and then one day you realize the joy in just being able to walk on those fat legs. Anne makes a point of saying how important it is to live each day and enjoy your life. How many times have each of us turned down an invitation to swim because we didn't want anyone to see us in our swim suits until we lost those ten or twenty extra pounds? Those experiences won't be back again another day. This is the only life we've got. Anne wraps up the article by quoting an old saying, "it's not that I think less of myself, but that I think of myself less often."

Molly Ivins article is packed with wisdom. "I think most of us become nicer as we get older, less judgmental, less full of certitude; life tends to knock a few corners off all of us as we go through&.I like letting vanity go. I'd rather be comfortable than chic, and you'd have to shoot me to put on stilettos. Charm doesn't fade, wit doesn't age and knowledge is still priceless. If we live well, every year we become a year's worth better, smarter and wiser. Good humor is more attractive than good breasts and I think fudge and pets are better than sex. (Speak for yourself, Molly) Cheer up and enjoy today because it will get worse."

I wouldn't want to be 20 or even 30 again but I do wish I could just go back and like myself more and be nicer to me. I can't rewind the past so I'm going to try to live better and do better now. All this to say I'm glad I'm alive and healthy and proud to be 46 years old.