Reflecting on the New Year

1955

1971

1983

2008

2015 the tape is there because I just had my thyroid removed

2007

2012

1994

2016

I posted the most recent picture, from 2016, on Facebook as my "profile picture".  This is pretty much how I look when I am not too tired, have on a bit of make-up, and am smiling.

I wanted to load the pictures here in chronological order, but haven't yet mastered that skill.   Oh well, I did date them the best I could.

My favorite picture among these, of myself anyway, is the one from 1983.  Of course I was a lot younger and thinner.  That helps.  And something that bugs me, but nobody else probably cares about, is how much straighter my teeth were back then.

I want to get them back to that although some people would say "you're almost 63, what does it matter how you look?".    Well, I don't know that it matters in terms of global importance, but it matters to me.

I guess I am aging alright.   I don't know what I expected!  I kind of had a picture in my mind, once upon a time, of myself in my 60s with two long, gray braids.    Wearing overalls.   Being a country woman.   I imagined myself as one of Joni Mitchell's

"Ladies of the Canyon".      

She always makes you welcome in
Cats and babies 'round her feet
And all are fat and none are thin
None are thin and all are fat
She may bake some brownies today
Saying you are welcome back


I knew this song before  I was married and before I was a mother, but I had a romantic vision of myself with cats and babies.  I got to live that dream, didn't I?   And I can always go back and listen to the music.

What is it about the music of youth and dreams?  Here's another one that Nick and I both loved listening to:

"Teach Your Children"

You, who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so, become yourself
Because the past is just a goodbye

Teach your children well
Their father's hell did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you'll know by

Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you

And you (Can you hear?) of tender years (And do you care?)
Can't know the fears (And can you see?) that your elders grew by (We must be free)
And so, please help (To teach your children) them with your youth (What you believe in)
They seek the truth (Make a world) before they can die (That we can live in)

Teach your parents well
Their children's hell will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you'll know by

Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you will cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you