Greenjeans Farm

It dawned on me the other day, I’m getting old!  It’s probably already dawned on me, but I’m getting so old, I probably forgot that it dawned on me!

I am in good physical shape and healthy.  I try to manage my vices, but thoroughly enjoy them!  I simply cannot imagine getting old and NOT enjoying it. I’m almost on the back side of the 50’s.  It’s easy to keep your body in shape and your muscles toned when you are a farmer.  And I truly like getting up at 3 or 4 and going to bed by 7 or 8.  My husband is full time farm and men always grow old gracefully, I have a day job so we can do this, but there is always something physical you can do here that stretches your body and your mind at the same time.

The problem is the FACE!!!!!  When you look in the mirror and try to stretch your face back toward your ears and you don’t have enough fingers to pull back all the places- that is a tell tale sign.  It makes me wish I would not have scoffed at sunscreen as a teen, or thought that baby oil would give me a great tan. I grew up in Washington State, but we were all still trying to “be California girls”.  Gallons of Noxema, which I don’t think they even sell anymore, and then Vaseline, ICCCCCCCCCK.   Trying to pull back all the places just makes you look like an alien, so plastic surgery is out.  Botox is not an option because I use my face to communicate!  I still keep looking for and spending money for that dewy fresh moisturizer that will take 10 to 20 years off my appearance, when I really think it comes down to olive oil.  I think about gaining 5 or 10 pounds, but wonder how I would get it from my butt to my face!   

I placate myself by telling myself that I have smile lines and they are a part of my personality.  True I do smile and laugh a lot, but sometimes I look at some of those lines and think, “I’ll tell people those are smile lines….”  In my heart I know that some of those lines are “worry” lines, and some of those lines are “putting up with things I hated lines”.   Spent way too much time doing that!    

The fun thing about all this, is I really do not care!  My face is like a fly I can swat at.  It bugs me I can’t look like my 24 year old daughter, but she is beautiful.  I couldn’t look like Christy Brinkley either!  It keeps coming back, but it’s not important enough for me to stop everything else in my life.    

There is nothing I hate about my life anymore and age has given me the ability to put “things” in perspective.   I am grateful for an almost grown family.  I am happy where I am in this place that grounds us and feeds us each day, not just our bodies, but our souls.  I’m madly in a love relationship for 20 years now, with a fabulous man who is my best friend and love of my life.  I can get up in the morning and NOT do my hair, and NOT wear makeup and go outside and feel good because it’s cool and damp and yesterday was so darn hot.  I can wear what ever I want, or what ever I don’t want.  You only have to spiff up for company, or work or if we’re going somewhere.     I am finally, the beautiful me, and I have wrinkles on my face!    

It’s almost like riding a bike for the first time, or driving your first car! 

You can bet I will be one of those little old ladies with no filters in the end.  Probably scaring children showing them how I can pull my face back with all my fingers!       

“Happiness isn’t having what you want, but wanting what you have.”  This is our family motto.  These words are in a frame in my kitchen above my stove and have been since my children were toddlers reminding me and them to be happy every day for the people and things that bless and add to our lives. 

In the summer months it seems like I spend my days in the kitchen.  Cutting, Chopping, Canning, freezing, drying, sweating, more canning.  My husband Jeff harvests and drops baskets in the kitchen and putting it up is my responsibility.  There are times when I wilt to the floor when a new basket hits the door, but I have that farmer mentality; “do it now, it’s ripe, it’s at it’s peak, what else could I possibly do with a tomato, basil, corn, a cabbage?”  Later on in December and January I thank myself for doing something with that tomato, basil, corn, cabbage.  We make the best Marinara on the west coast!  And Jeff makes the best spaghetti ever!  And then he makes Chicken with the sauce!   And there is nothing like homemade red or green tomato catsup or relish. And then I have my friend Barbara call me to let me know that her sourdough starter is ready and she wants to share!  Good I’m doing spaghetti on Sunday!  Another neighbor has a bottle of wine, and another wants to do sausage! Another has Abolone that she wants to trade for beets!  (go figure)   I am famous for cherry and peach wine!  Tastes great on a January night in front of a fire!    These are the things your life is made of.  It’s the cookies at Christmas and the caramel apples at Halloween.  These are the things you take to your grave!   

Some of the happiest moments come in the most odd times and carry you through your day if you open yourself up to the world around you.  It can be as simple as getting up before sunrise, grabbing a cup of coffee and listening to the frogs and crickets and then as the sun starts to come over the hills the birds and roosters and cow symphony.  A flash of a smile from a teenager that “used to be your baby”.  How rare!  Having a real baby wave at you in the grocery store, then turning down another aisle and having an old woman wave at you from the motorized cart and ask for some help grabbing some garlic! How could a life be better? 

All I’m saying is live in the moment you are in.  It is a whole lot better than regrets or what if’s.  No worries about what you want because it will happen if you live in your moment.