There are lots of good things about getting older/becoming more mature/ripening… For a start, you know more stuff than when you were young, you just can’t always put it into action. You care less about what other people think and more about what will cause you constipation. You have bucket-loads more memories to enjoy, when you can remember them. Sometimes those memories will pop into your head without warning and give you a delightful, or terrifying, jolt. And, people expect less of you so you can get away with more. 😉

However there’s also a serious downside: your body begins to rebel against you. Things sag. Your knees act up. Your teeth need attention. Arthritis moves in and settles into your nooks and crannies with reckless abandon. And then there are the nose hairs: sneaky little ratbags!

For most of my life I never gave my nose hairs a second thought. They stayed up inside my nostrils doing their important nose hairy work. They minded their own business and I minded mine. Maybe that’s where the trouble starts? Maybe we should pay them some attention, show some appreciation while we and they are young? A rose or two; a thank you card…that sort of thing. Then, perhaps, they wouldn’t feel the need to commit mutiny when we’re older.

One day I was blissfully unaware and the next day I saw what I thought was a spider’s legs dangling out of my left nostril. I thought the critter had crawled up there during the night, perhaps for shelter or perhaps searching for a quiet place to die. I got the tweezers and gave one of the legs a jolly hard yank and YOW…it was attached to me! I had to do some serious, painful pruning or spend the rest of my life known as ‘old lady hairy nose’.

For a while that’s as far as it went: the occasional pruning of hairs that had headed down instead of up. But then, things took a more sinister turn. The darn things started growing sideways inside my nose. Then, every so often, usually when I was in a public place but occasionally when I was at home, safe from scrutiny, the hairy pests began to wave and tickle. So, you’re chatting to a good friend in a coffee shop, or talking to your doctor, or giving a speech, or singing a song and suddenly, right in the middle of what you’re doing, a rogue hair begins to tickle, scratch and annoy the heck out of you. And, what can you do? It’s not as though you can stop the conversation and say, ‘Excuse me a minute’ and then shove a couple of fingers up there to forage around for which hair has turned feral. To do it right you need tweezers, good lighting and a mirror.

Oh yes, it may be just a small thing to you, especially if you have yet to reach the age of hair rebellion, but I tell you the small things can wear you down. Just think of the dripping tap. Eventually those drops of water will wear down the heaviest stone. Be thankful for the warning: be kind to your nose hairs while you still have the chance and maybe, just maybe, they won’t make your life hell when you reach the age of getting ripe.