Aging and ways to slow it down.

People tell me I look younger than I am. They act surprised when I reveal my age.

Who in their right mind would tell me or anyone that they look old?

I don't feel my age. It isn't just being a bride and being madly in love that is the reason. Nor it is my writing or a dozen other non-age appropriate things in my life.

There are things in my age that I don't like. The less taunt skin is one, although good DNA and not having spent hours in the son have kept most wrinkles at bay. I have to fight to keep weight off, where once I had to fight to keep it on.

However, there is one way I'm retaining my teenage look...

Pimples.

I always had a few even through my adult years. The only times my skin was totally clear was when I was pregnant or on the pill. Continued pregnancies for clear skin had unwanted consequences of becoming the old woman who lived in a shoe with so many children she didn't know what to do.

My system didn't react well to the pill.

Only in my 40s did I discover the source of my skin problems-- those lovely oranges that I ate every day.

And there were the oranges my father and stepmom sent from Florida every Christmas. They were the size of grapefruits and my skin problems were worse for the holidays.

I did not make the connection until there was a period I had no oranges and finally had the complexion of a model. Eating oranges again, the skin problems returned.

Once I did discover the connection, I looked for substitutes. The fresh local fruit in Argelès is wonderful. Cherries, apricots, strawberries, strawberries, (cultivated and from the forests), nectarines, kiwis, kakis. 

All lead to pimply skin.

I adore them all, but I can guarantee after eating them pop, pop, pop the pimples appear.

Apples, bananas and melons do not create the problem. Blueberries are safe.

Still teenage acne does not become a woman of my years.  I once joked with my daughter that I would be the only person in the old age home using Clearisil. 

Maybe it isn't a joke, because I can't imagine never having another cherry, apricots, strawberries, strawberry, (cultivated and from the forests), kiwi, nectarine, or kaki. Thus I will give in and savour any of them knowing the consequences.

An advantage of aging is knowing that pleasure is not to be postponed.