ARGH! It’s happening, those annoying signs of aging.  As an active adult, I’m convinced that all the positives steps I’m taking will avert natural signs of aging including, aches and pains, graying hair, disease and eye sight- just to name a few. The aches and pains I chalk up to my activity level, i.e. assurance that I worked out really hard. Graying hair, thank God for my hairdresser (though people tell me that hair dye can cause cancer, ‘sigh’). Disease, so far so good! But the eye sight, not so much.  With all the carrots and Vitamin A rich foods I eat, really? Yes, really.

In the beginning I cursed the print in newspaper, ingredients on side labels and bottles wondering what a cruel trick to shrink the print to microscopic size.  Surely it wasn’t my eyes, I’m a healthy adult!  Others laughed and said, “Welcome to middle age!” What? I refuse to be a statistic! How could my eyesight be going? I’m too healthy!

As I struggled my way through newspapers, emails and magazines, narrowing my eyes in an effort to make sense of it all, I swore it was temporary, like the flu, “this too shall pass.”

Unfortunately, my vision refused to improve, words continued to shrink and blur. It was time to visit the eye doctor. After my exam, what did he say? “Welcome to middle age!” Almost grounds for a head butt.  Mentally I’m not middle age, and physically I don’t feel middle age, how could my eyes betray me by becoming…. dare I say? Middle age.

But when you’re served lemons, you’ve got to make lemonade, right? The positive side to this whole shift is that dulled vision seems to soften everything. I can’t see the inevitable wild hairs on my chin that come from God knows where (except when using my 300x magnifying mirror, a blessing and a curse those mirrors). I can’t see the little things that used to bother me, dust bunnies, a wrinkle in a shirt, a chipped nail.

“Softer” vision is a much better substitution for middle aged eyes. The funny thing is, as I started thinking about softer vision it seemed to spawn a softer attitude.  Things that used to bother me no longer do. I tend to worry less, and laugh a lot more. I find myself excited over situations that 10 years ago I would have thought boring. If the car in front of me doesn’t turn on their blinker, so what? If the person in front of me decides to write a check, carefully printing out each word vs. using a credit card, oh well. If I catch every single red light in route to my destination, so be it.

The softening of my vision has definitely spilled over in to softening of the “little things.”  So, perhaps the vision thing isn’t necessarily a sign of middle age, simply a nudge to stop, smell the roses and soften up!

To Your Health,

Nicki