Am I an Old Lady Yet?

I’m not quite sure
when that threshold
is crossed.
Some of the external evidence
is here-
thinning hair,
furrowed skin,
aches from old injuries,
and the way I have become
invisible in public.

There are also
these storehouses of memory,
going back and back and back,
so many pages turned,
so many phases
now behind me.

Yet on the inside,
I don’t feel any older.
If I didn’t know the timeline,
didn’t have a mirror,
I wouldn’t consider it.

Because I am still
the same me.
My ever-same spirit
has just been
floating along here
since the beginning-
observing,
adapting,
experiencing
the vast array
of joys and sorrows
that make up a life.

And always learning Love,
how everything eventually
points to
ageless,
timeless
Love.

By Maria Brady-Smith
Photo by Mike Smith