The Ageless Pedicure

Walking around Nordstrom -- the fanciest department store in downtown Seattle -- my eyes were downcast for a moment so the first thing I saw were her feet: soft and supple in gold sandals. PERFECT pedicure: flawless juicy strawberry-red polish. An anklet and a couple toe rings. SEXY.

My mouth watered.

Tracking my eyes upwards from her feet and ankles, up her body, and to her face, I was shocked to see an elderly white-haired woman being supported on either side by younger women: her daughter and granddaughter.

If I'd been asked to guess her age just by her feet at the moment I saw them, I'd have said twenty-five.

Feet, hands and teeth are places on our bodies where mere mortals SHOW their age. The years are not kind to most of our hands and mouths and feet. How in the world did this woman walk around on those beautiful perfect feet all those years and come out on the grey end of life with such vibrant, sexy, age-defying feet?

Obviously MONEY is part of the equation. But part of it is the intention she clearly had to take care of that part of her body, and to SHOW THEM OFF. She invested time and money in her feet for decades, and I don't know if you could say it "paid off" -- that's subjective and I wouldn't place bets on that, but well ... yes I can. I would bet EVERYTHING that she does not every regret the lengths she went to to maintain her peds.

I spotted this woman years ago, but think of her still ... and with greater frequency as I grow older and my untended, unpampered, impoverished feet show signs of age and distress.

I want to be like that old woman in Nordstrom that day. With ageless, immortal-looking perfectly sexy and polished FEET.