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When Kathy Martin was 30, she experienced a turning point that changed her life. She decided to go for a jog with her husband who, unlike Kathy, was a regular runner. It wasn’t long before she literally lay down in the middle of the road exhausted. She remembers her husband saying, “Get up, a car’s going to hit you!” to which she joked back, “I hope it does.”
She didn’t get hit by a car that evening, but she did get bit by a bug—a running bug. It was a real aha moment in her life. She thought, If I can’t run a mile and I’m only 30 years old, I won’t be able to walk by the time I’m 60. With her competitive nature awakened, the next day she ran again, pushing herself to one more telephone pole or one more mailbox. The first 30 days, she didn’t enjoy running, but she knew it was something she had to do. Her carrot when running? She would dream of having ice cream afterward.
Kathy’s covered a lot of ground since then, and you can’t tell from looking at her that she loves ice cream. Today at 58 years old, Kathy has competed in more than 900 races, setting new records in her age group and winning a number of prestigious running awards. In 2002, she ran the mile in 5 minutes, 22.74 seconds at the USA Track and Field National Masters Indoor Championships, a world-record time for women age 50-54. She was selected as the BENGAY Masters Athlete of the Year in 2004, the year she broke seven American records and three world records in the women’s 50-54 age group. Not bad for a woman who barely could run a mile at the beginning of her running career.34
I had the honor of meeting Kathy at a Mastermind Summit conference in San Diego. My husband said to me, “There’s Kathy Martin. She’s on that Nike ad and she’s in her fifties.” I couldn’t believe the young, thin, energetic woman he was pointing to was in her fifties. She was living, breathing proof that you’re never too old to sparkle.
Her age-defying athleticism caught Nike’s attention. Nike asked her several times to be in a television commercial before she reluctantly agreed. In the Nike advertisement, the camera follows Kathy from behind as she’s running through the woods, focusing on her fit body in slow motion. You hear Kathy’s voice: “See that? It’s 51 years old—51 years old and it can run a 5:08 mile. Can I do a 5:02?” The ad ends by revealing Kathy’s face, slightly wrinkled with a few gray hairs around the temples.
You don’t have to be in your thirties to be in the best shape of your life. Kathy Martin, now 58, is living proof that you can sparkle at any age.
I’m not enough of a wordsmith to know what diaphanous means. My best guess would have been one of my son’s dinosaurs. But nothing could be further from the truth. According to Merriam-Webster, diaphanous means “characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through, characterized by extreme delicacy of form.”
I was introduced to diaphanous because it was Patsy Clairmont’s “Word of the Month” on her website:
You see diaphanous means light, delicate, translucent…like Cinderella’s ball gown. Remember how its delicate layers gently rustled as she waltzed with the prince and how it sparkled flecks of light? I sometimes imagine that angels are diaphanous. Don’t you? With gossamer wings and a shimmering glow. Really shouldn’t we be? This is a brutal, dark, hard world, and we are called to be its dichotomy: light-bearing, delicate in our treatment of others, and translucent in the sense of honesty and vulnerability.35
If you’ve ever seen Patsy speak, then you know she is diaphanous. She sparkles with incredible imagination, energy, love, and zest for life. I remember going to my first Women of Faith conference and hearing Patsy tell the story of buying something at a department store. The young lady at the cash-register sized Patsy up as an average grandmother and began speaking loudly and slowly, “If you have your grandchild, go onto the Internet; you can fill out a survey and get a coupon.” Patsy quickly retorted, “I can do that myself. I have my own email and website, thank you. I blog, Facebook, and even Twitter.”36 You go, Patsy!
Now there are some sparkly things you should avoid if you’re not 20 anymore. Looking younger doesn’t mean accessorizing so heavily that you look like an overdone Christmas tree. Just a little bling goes a long way, so skip the sparkly earrings and the sparkly necklace and the sparkly rings and the sparkly bracelet. Pick just one sparkly item to wear at a time if you’re going to sparkle. Here are a few other things 20-year-olds can get away with but you shouldn’t try as you age:
• Avoid bright or dark lipstick
• Avoid drawing attention to your eyelids with frosted shadow
• Avoid bright nail polish or lots of big rings if your hands are showing signs of aging
• Avoid exposing too much skin
• Avoid heavy perfume
• Avoid oversized earrings
• Avoid jeans with jeweled embellishments
On the flip side, you don’t want to age yourself either. Avoid looks that say, “I’m getting old.” Say goodbye to:
• Overly matchy outfits (jacket and pants with the same floral print)
• Fake nails
• Holiday sweaters with bells, reindeers, teddy bears, pumpkins, etc.
• Souvenir T-shirts and baggy sweats
• Muumuus
• Elastic waist pants
• Oversized turtlenecks
My stylish 65-year-old friend Jane went into the shoe department at Nordstrom. She observed that many women were no longer wearing flesh-colored pantyhose, so she asked the salesperson about it. The young lady answered, “It’s true that young women are no longer wearing nude pantyhose, but women your age are still wearing them.” That was the last time my spunky friend wore pantyhose.37
Whether you’re forty, sixty, or eighty, you can still glow with radiance and confidence. When you approach life with passion and grace, you open up a world of new adventures and possibilities.
SPARKLE, DON’T SLUMP
Do you have the bad habit of slumping? When you stand up straight, you can seemingly lose five pounds instantly. So keep your head up, hold your shoulders up and back, and walk briskly. You’ll look and feel more confident with very little effort.
Thought for Rejuvenation
Could someone describe you as diaphanous (light-bearing, delicate in your treatment of others, and translucent in the sense of honesty and vulnerability)?
Is there something you’ve put off doing because you believe you’re too old? What is it, and what is standing in the way?
Are you using age as an excuse? Is there a valid medical reason holding you back?
Remember Kathy Martin’s perseverance in running. What is one thing you will do this week to begin a new adventure?