The Blossoming Years
“Aging Is Living And It Starts The Minute We’re Born”
Joanne Friedland Roberts
(series in progress)
In this series, The Blossoming Years, the onion represents older individuals, since both are judged lowly in our culture. Also, both grow from the center out adding layers over time. I painstakingly make these faux flowers using only parts of dried onions which I photograph.
The onion’s metamorphose to a pretty flower parallels older individuals spiritual & emotional metamorphose into deeper beings. Aging has been compared to climbing a staircase, bringing us into wisdom, wholeness and authenticity, making it easier to focus on what truly matters.”
Seeing my wrinkles, people profile me based on the negative age belief of a stereotypical “old person” — take medicine, deficient cognitively, physically & technically, etc. I feel diminished after these humiliating encounters.
But scientific studies show that positive age beliefs can add nearly eight years to a person’s life, plus strengthen their memory, relationships, functional health & lower stress. Sadly, negative age beliefs lower our emotional and physical well-being, adversely affecting our later years experience. Ageism is the last socially acceptable prejudice.
I want older individuals to embrace aging truths, so we’ll stop harming ourselves by believing in negative age myths.
“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be!”
Robert Browning
