Rise and Fall

via Daily Prompt: Spike

Whenever I think about the word “Spike, ” I also think about elevation,, rise, tautness, and youthfulness. Therefore, old age ought to be its opposite because everything seems to drop as we approach or reach that stage in our lives. Body parts that were once elevated are now below level, and ones that were level now have a distorted projection. Take, for example, my stomach which was relatively flat has now spiked outwards and changed the contour of my body and my flabby derriere seems to almost melt into a couch whenever I sit. On the other hand, my firm paps that gave suck to my three children are hanging defiantly on my chest.

A few a years ago I would have welcomed the dent of a dimple on my cheeks. It would have been cute because cuteness implies a certain youthfulness. Babies, puppies, kittens, teenage girls and boys often get that recognition. I’m not sure what adjectives society reserves for fifty-something women. It’s not one that’s subliminally connected with youth or beauty, more a word that implies an ending stage like menopausal. It is a heavily coded word that men and women bandy around. Women use it to laugh at themselves and even sneer at their peers. Perhaps we secretly believe that self-deprecation will soften the sting when men wittingly or unwittingly use the word to disparage us.

How often do we overhear someone from the opposite sex peremptorily dismiss a legitimate concern of a female counterpart with the cliché, “She must be going through menopause?” My anger almost always spikes when members of the male species relegate my female peers and me to the rank of nit-wits because of gender differences. Call it arrogance, but confidence spikes with age. I am not afraid to say what’s on my mind nor attempt to do some things because I’ve been around some bends and back.

And don’t think that because I’ve recognized that my body has more valleys than hills that I’m depressed.  I’m comfortable in my skin and accept my changing form because God has prepared my body for such a time as this:

My frame was not hidden from [Him] when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. [His]eyes saw my unformed body;  all the days ordained for me were written in [His] book  before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:15-16, NIV).

Its parts are moving in the direction of the Master’s hand, therefore I’ll go with the flow. Umm…Sounds like my thinking has been elevated … What do you think?