Mr Grey

The morning scramble began with a colleague’s text which read ‘want a lift to work?’- an offer now an hour overdue, rendering it invalid. Throwing on a black and white checked dress combined with drama-class friendly leggings, I sprayed my far too masculine ‘ENERGY 5’ deodorant, and headed toward the mirror for the final touches. Never too concerned about my look at work, I side swept my puffy mane into a rather clumsy plait that I hoped would be viewed as fashionably messy rather than as a reflection of my morning haste. The final wrap of my hairband around the paintbrush like ending of my locks was halted by a vision in the corner of my eye that stopped me in my frantic tracks. A grey hair. Zooming in by moving closer to my mirror, I learnt that it could not be excused as being bleach or a lapse in my vision. There it sat, lacking in pigment and slightly wavier than the other hairs, spitefully angled above them. I grabbed it, eager to uproot it and pretend I never saw it, longing to live in a Peter Pan world where I need not acknowledge the possibility of age related limitations. I cut off a friend mid sentence recently when she, quite logically, suggested that my newly found experience of hangovers may be due to me surpassing the big 3 – 0, turning to Google who returned to me the relieving results that no, hangovers do not worsen with age.
‘The trouble is, you think you have time’, I stared at my disappointed reflection remembering this quote, that referred to the greatest human folly of all time; the denial that we will all become sick or old, and that death certainly awaits us. We are all on the way to this death, with no idea of when the date will be, yet many of us walk filled with endless procrastinations of the things we will do in a future that we are not even promised. For this reason we must make the most of each day with the acceptance, and not denial of , the ultimate end to this episode. It is only with this darkness and ending in mind that we can appreciate and fully live the light – and not in a reckless YOLO sort of way. Braving another look at my new wispy grey hair strand I decided against yanking him from his new home. Tying the final loop on my braid I stood up, slowed down the morning exit, took a few invigorating breathes in and appreciated this slice of my life in the here and the now, ready to fully live this day, grey hair and all.