During the last year and a half, I’ve done a lot of thinking about surrender. That’s why I chose surrender as my word of the year.
I believe that surrender is not about giving up, but making peace with reality. Because I’ve learned that what you resist persists and the fighting is emotionally exhausting.
A few days ago, I did a selfie photo shoot of my new look. Normally I’m not one to share many pictures of myself. But I do change up my photos on this blog and my social media every year or so. This change is dramatic, so I thought I’d blog it too.
My hair has been thinning for years and has been a constant source of stress and anxiety. Society places so much importance on thick long luxurious hair. What do you do when you don’t have that no matter how hard you try?
You do the best you can with what you have. You try to overlook comments that people make about other people’s hair while wondering what they think of yours.
Then you just get exhausted by the whole thing. Because life is short and what’s the point of worrying. I can’t control other people’s thoughts — only mine. I need to be comfortable with myself. I’m 56, soon to be 57, and want to age gracefully. Wigs, weaves and braids have never been my style, so I started looking at the other end of the spectrum.
Several of my aunts have embraced the bald look and some well-known glamorous women like Christine Platt and Ayanna Pressley rock it as well. Ayanna Pressley is such an inspiration and powerhouse that I’ve especially taken strength from her and see her as an expander. I don’t have alopecia, but many women in my family have thinning hair, so it’s almost certainly genetics.
My mom had a stroke at the end of February and I’ve been helping her get back to her life. It’s been a long journey for both of us. Through all this, we both were vaccinated. PSA — Get vaccinated!
The day before I became fully vaccinated (two weeks after the second dose) was also the day that I picked up my mom from rehab and brought her home. It’s also the day that I got most of my hair chopped off. I only have so much physical and emotional energy and focusing on my hair is not how I want to use it.
The pandemic has given many of us time to think about what’s important and what’s not. At the beginning of the pandemic, I vowed to myself that if I survived it, I wasn’t leaving it the same way I went in. None of us will. Intentionally or not. Time will reveal other changes that I probably can’t imagine yet.
What about you? How are you leaving the pandemic differently than you went in?
First of all, I love your new look, my youngest daughter did the same some time ago and I can see how it empowered so I hope it does the same to you. Regarding the pandemic, I don’t feel that it has had much of a direct impact on me in the sense that it has changed my view on life. I hope it’s because it’s because I’m good with the life I live or maybe I’m just plain stupid. Come to think of it though, one thing it has made me realize is how precious my family is and how much strength I get from them. And it has certainly made me appreciate all the people working in health care and how unselfishly they have worked to save lives, it has made me appreciate our heath care system even more.
Ilva – Thank you! I agree about appreciation for our health care system. It’s also made me aware of how fragile that system is. Even before the pandemic I noticed a generational shift. Many of my doctors and my mom’s as well were retiring. It seems that the retirement process is being sped up even more since the pandemic.