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“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot harm you.” ~An African proverb
It’s ten o’clock in the morning on a Tuesday.
My wet board shorts and green tank top dried at lightning speed in the hot South African sun.
I feel alive and happy after my time surfing in the blue Arabian sea, warm bath.
Swimming waves has been my goal for the past two years, and I’m doing it. Which is pretty cool considering I never thought I’d surf again.
The trauma and fear of a surfing accident ten years ago, which nearly knocked out my teeth, remained in my body for years, and the focus of my life had changed from sports to yoga.
When I arrived in Kerala, India, my intention was to do an intensive period of study with my Ashtanga yoga teacher for ten weeks and then return to Rishikesh in Northern India, where I was based.
A chance invitation brought me to the coastal town where I have lived for the past two years due to the epidemic.
And there just so happens to be great surfing here.
My re-entry into surfing has been slow and steady.
For my fiftieth birthday present I gave myself ten surfing lessons.
I decided I should start as a beginner and took a basic course to get back to basics and get comfortable on a surfboard.
An Indian man in his mid-thirties who was in my surfing class asked, “How old are you?”
“Fifty,” I replied.
“I hope I’m still surfing at your age,” he said in response.
I think he probably meant this as a compliment, but I took it in stride and wondered why it mattered how old I was.
It is now two years later.
Little by little I went from a beginner to an intermediate diver.
As I drank hot tea from a Dixie cup on the side of a busy street in a fishing village, after a morning of surfing, an old gray-haired Indian man asked me, “How old are you?”
“Fifty two,” I replied.
His jaw dropped, he said: “I thought you were seventy years old, you have really bad skin.”
Yes, this is really happening.
And it has happened more than once.
Every time it happened, I let you take the wind out of my sails.
Wow, I think, how can I look seventy years old when I feel better than I did when I was twenty one?
Honestly, good skin genes don’t favor me. Along with my love of the sun and spending most of my life outside, it has left me with crocodile skin.
I lied about my age until I was in my 40s.
On my forty-sixth birthday, I told a woman who asked my age that I was forty. He laughed and asked if I was sixty.
But this encounter with chai-guy caused me to sleep on the other side.
What if I start telling these men that I’m eighty-five years old? I thought to myself as I drove my Mahindra scooter from the chai shop. The thought made me smile, and I immediately felt stronger.
Instead of feeling ashamed of my skin, I decided to give it back to them.
I no longer care what they or you think of the way I look, and I no longer exert power over my appearance.
It doesn’t matter to me because inside I feel amazing.
I practice the entire moderately challenging Ashtanga yoga series six days a week, something I never thought possible in my forties, and I surf every day.
Twenty-one young Indian surfers are giving me fist pumps and saying, “You’re surfing and catching big waves now!”
And they have stopped asking about my age.
I felt called to share this story because it made me wonder: Why are we not allowed to grow old?
Why is it shameful to have old skin?
Why can’t I have wrinkles and gray hair and own them?
This is what the body does.
It gets old.
So why aren’t we meant to look our age? Or for me, even the elders!
I decided to stand up and change the situation.
I claim my age and my place in the surf line and express my truth.
We are allowed to grow old.
About Polly Green
Polly Green is a psychic speaker, spiritual coach, and filmmaker who guides souls through growth and change. She helps clients release old patterns, reconnect with their true essence, and feel grounded, clear, and empowered in life and work. By combining mind-shifting with spiritual tools, you support awakening empathy in accepting their gifts and help those seeking comfort and connection with loved ones on the Other Side. Connect with him on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, or visit his website.
