I don't recognize my own face lately
Welcome to this week's Thought Gem — your reminder to pause, breathe, and choose your focus.
Every morning lately there's a small pause before I recognize myself. In photos too, and in videos, that half second where I think, who is that, oh right, me. New gray hairs showing up uninvited. My vision doing something different than it used to. Some ache that showed up one day with no explanation attached and just decided to stay.
And also, at the exact same time, this: another day to witness my life. Another day with the people I love. Those two things do not take turns. They sit right on top of each other, most days, all day.
I have zero judgment for how any woman handles this. Embrace it, enhance it, reverse it, ignore it completely. Whatever makes you feel more alive is the right answer. Me, this week, I bought a very fancy natural skincare line made from wild arctic plant balms. That should do the trick, right?
I'm not trying to land this one anywhere tidy. The gift is real. So is the part that's hard to look at some mornings. I'm just letting both be true.
Your invitation for this week:
Catch yourself in the mirror once, on purpose, and notice what you say to yourself before you edit it.
This week I'm sitting down with Dr. Mike Brandt, a facial plastic surgeon, for an honest, no-judgment conversation about aging and every option out there for dealing with it. What surprised me most wasn't anything about the procedures. It was watching a surgeon who spends his whole career refining precise, careful work admit that half the job is knowing when to tell someone the right answer is to do nothing at all.
Catch you then,
xo Tracy
P.S. Go deeper with us on A Beautiful Fix this Wednesday. If you're not already following the show, you can find it on Apple or Spotify and we're also on YouTube now! Join us & subscribe!
