Ageing Like a Fine Wine

“Your 40s are good. Your 50s are great. Your 60s are fab. And 70 is fucking awesome!” ~Helen Mirren

I found it surreal the day I turned fifty, seeing those two numbers standing to attention: five and nought, splashed all over my birthday cards. It felt curiously deceiving.

I remember clearly back to my tenth birthday — my twin and I were so excited, we had reached the two-digit club, and felt all grown up.

Where, and how, did those forty years go by so fast?

I find that when I’ve run into people I haven’t seen for years, or even decades, as we start to catch up with one another, it seems like all those years melt away. Everything comes back to me in an instant, despite the distance and ageing that have transpired.

Time is only a construct, a way to create meaning, measure the seasons, and our Earth’s orbit. I don’t believe it changes most of the connections we have made on our life’s journey. They’re locked into our cellular memory; no matter how many orbits have occurred, the connection stays intact.

Time is an illusion and a concept of our reality.

I’ve often contemplated on how, when those punishing seasons of our lives, and the arduous situations that take months or years to resolve — once over, as we stand on the other side, the emotional strain within our body dissipates; as if none of it ever happened.

I compare this to the onerous ascent of a mountain; once the summit has been reached, all that endurance, resilience, physical and mental strength, experienced throughout the climb, are parked, as we stand and take a look around at the panoramic views. The achievement and relief is phenomenal.

These similarities mirror the process of our timelines.

Reaching one more decade of my life made me question my newly acquired summit of age, I had now reached. I was still making mistakes, still struggling financially, and sure didn’t feel as confident as I assumed I would be by then.

I even found myself becoming homeless and, even now, still have most of my items in a storage facility, while I reside in a no man’s land. It took this scenario to help me let go, and accept life isn’t linear, and that it’s okay that I’m not settled where I should be at my age.

Conversation and media centers around ageing and anti-ageing, which I know has a lot to do with longevity, as well as vanity. Yet, I wonder if we lean on this — because of the fear of how the years really do fly by so rapidly?

Perhaps it would benefit us to invest more in sourcing ways to welcome in the innate process of ageing beautifully within — spiritually — as well as the physically aspects of ageing?

We are all inevitability going to face these new chapters in life, which won’t include exits as we get further along the road. Okay, maybe some plastic surgery or cryonic preservation for longer results!

But what about celebrating what’s on the inside.

The years do fly by when you’re looking at it from my end; I start to remember the old ladies that told me as a child, how quick time goes. I didn’t believe them, and I honestly didn’t believe I would age; how messed up is that.

When we are in our youth we are fixated on the outside, our looks, and how we can impress others. We want to be accepted, particularly if we weren’t brought up in an emotionally healthier environment, with the nurturing of an inner worth.

If that’s the case, then our attractiveness can be our only means of value. It was in my case, until I had to learn the harder way. Still, with youth, we see life at face value and our depth is only skin deep. They say, youth is wasted on the young, and I get that now.

Nonetheless, as we age, have children, or inherit new responsibilities, we yearn for more meaning. Something within broadens and emanates as an energetic strength. Our spiritual scars, and badges of honour, accrued from our harder seasons, become an extended part of us.

Certain types of trees can live up to a thousand years old, isn’t that incredible! Still, no matter the longevity, the inner trunk of every tree will record its years and climate scars by its growth rings. These rings tell us the seasons the tree has endured and can even bear witness to any forest fire occurred in its lifetime. The tree is very much like us, in how our life is recorded by years, scars and growth.

Like the trees’ growth rings, our inner selves evolve in an inward direction, a growth of immense depth. You see this particularly when, communicating with seniors, we see how their bodies are frail, where once strong, but have acquired knowledge that wouldn’t have been there when younger. It’s as if we swap our physical strength to an inner strength, which is defined as wisdom and balance.

“I like the woman you became better than the girl you were. I like the story you’ve written on your face”―Joanna Bourne

The beautiful thing is that once I accepted ageing is part of the journey (it took me a few years), life has felt more meaningful. I’ve been able to relax more, and open my arms up to the experience. It’s certainly not always easy, especially having to deal with the bigger challenges dominating my life right now. Still, everything good or negative, makes us who we are. Right?

How special it is to have been invited into this experience and all that it entails to be part of our planet Earth. To be a human being. Life can appear to be so logical with the systems that have infiltrated our lives — the blue pill.

If we acknowledge the red pill by reframing how we see these stifling illusions, we may start to fear less and live more.

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” ~Sophia Loren

© Chantal Weiss 2025. All Rights Reserved