Returning to My Roots - Going Grey

I have been talking about gaining greater congruence with the "self" I imagine myself to be in the decades ahead.  My heart's desire is to really think through how much of me is being defined by others expectations and how much of me is of my own choosing.  Besides the internal areas of my life, I want to apply this to the externals as well - What is my preferred style of dress? How much makeup do I want to wear?  How much attention do I want to give to looking healthy and youthful?

My personal belief is that natural beauty does not mean letting yourself go.  When God put Adam in the Garden, he said "Take care of it."  He expected him to tend it, create order, and make the most of the beauty that was there.  That took effort, planning, pruning and attention.  And, while there was supposed to be attention to making things look their best, I don't think that meant that everything had to look the same.  Each plant, flower and tree was to be brought to it's full potential, but not forced into some artificial conformity with all the other plants.  I believe a woman's beauty should be treated the same way - well-cared for, well-tended, but not overdone.  But, there is plenty of grey area here (no pun intended).  

BEAUTY DEFINED
I recently saw a post by some forty-something male pastor who was writing that Photoshop was from the Devil.  He had some point to make about women being their natural selves.  My first thought was "His wife hasn't hit menopause yet.  I wonder how much he is going to love her 'natural self' when the estrogen dries up." I get the point - to expect every woman to look like a Photoshopped model on the cover of Vogue is excessive.  But, to suggest that pruning, grooming and attention to appearance aren't godly is ridiculous.

But, who is going to define what is truly beautiful?   How does one decide how much "tending" is enough in a culture that considers cellulite on the thighs to be close to a mortal sin?  Where is the balance between "letting our inner beauty define us" and doing the necessary "pruning, tending and effort" to have the world experience our beauty at its best?  Who is to say that elective plastic surgery is wrong?  Or, on the other hand, that any makeup is vanity?

When it comes to a woman and the continuum of "tending the garden" of her beauty, there is a lot of room between Mother Teresa and Joan Rivers.

So, while I don't have this totally defined for myself, I've made a few decisions about my own appearance.  Here they are:

1.  I have decided to let my hair go grey (but keep having Micah give me great haircuts).
2.  I am going to take good care of my skin, naturally (and, I am really glad Gina told me about the Galvanic Spa.  I plan to keep using it for a long time).
3.  I am going to try to remember my mother's advice to consistently "wear some lipstick" (I am bad about that, but I know it helps).
4.  I want to be more attentive to my wardrobe so that I can dress appropriately for all occasions (mostly because I believe that appropriate dress makes one less self-conscious, and, therefore, freer to truly "see" others).
4.  I want my best feature to be kindness in my eyes (nothing is as beautiful as happy, loving eyes).

RESPONSES???
This is a huge topic.  My guess is that you have some of your own thoughts about it.  You may agree or disagree with some of this.  When it comes to what I personally plan to do, your opinion doesn't really matter, but I would love to get some responses to this subject.  I think that we need the support of others as we seek to become more authentic, both internally and externally.  I assume there are others on this journey.  If you are so inclined, I would love to hear from you - whether it is in the comment section below, or to my email jrmccool@earthlink.net.