Maria Bello Instagram – Yep, this is AGING. The second photo was taken almost 30 years ago and the first one is now-ish. I hated this now-ish photo during my PAUSE and all of the photos of me with crinkled eyes, smoking lines on my lips and droopy lids. That’s all I saw—the imperfections. I would compare photos Iike these—the old me and the new me, and of course it made me feel horrible about the new me. During my PAUSE I had to dig deep to look at my own judgement and ask, “Who taught me to hate aging? And why?” Every housewife on tv was seemingly getting younger, so why was I looking older and older? And then, flaneusing around Paris one day, towards the end of my PAUSE, I came upon a Gertrude Stein exhibit. She wasn’t young or pretty in a conventional sense, yet she carried herself in the second half of life in a powerful way. Picasso painted her in this phase and so did Warhol among many because they saw what I saw when I looked at her—POWER. I thought about her face with its creases and carves and her smile that read—“I don’t give a damn,” then I looked at my own face in the mirror, I said out loud, “Own it”. Own your history and age and crinkles and power and POSSIBILITY. You’ve earned it. I said this on repeat whenever I wanted to judge my aging. And that helped get me through the PAUSE. Post your 30 years ago and you now. Own it. Tell me what you like about your new self. #midlifemidwife #secondhalfoflife