Middle age is an amazing time. Full of changes and shifts.

Somewhere around age 40, body fat starts to redistribute. The Phat booty you used to have begins to shift to your new Phat middle. Gravity's pull begins to tug on breasts and you start to see how the flab on the underside of your upper arms could be used in a Jello commercial. (And men, it happens to you, too, so please stop thinking you can still walk around shirtless. You are embarrassing your family.)

The thing I find most amazing, though, is that my eyesight is getting bad.

Remember when you were young and your mother or grandmother yelled for you to "Come here, child, and thread this needle!" Well, now I am a grandmother and I am the one who can't see to thread the needle. I have used eyeglasses to help me see things at a distance for a long time. But, now I'm beginning to really understand the old saying, " ...can't see what’s in front of your face."

I find it rather ironic that the time when I'm beginning to need medications coincides with the time when I can't see to read the instructions on medicine bottles. I sometimes don't know if I'm taking Sominex or Dulcolax!

The other day I was trying to read the back of a store receipt to determine the stores return policy. The words were so small and obscure! It might as well have been written in Japanese. I finally gave up and just took it back to the store to see what they would do. They gave me the refund but I will never know if the receipt said I could return the item for a new car. I'll just have to take the clerk's word for it.

And have you ever wondered why you don't see old folks in nightclubs. It’s cause we can't see how to get there. Night driving is reserved for emergencies only.

I sometimes feel like Fred Sanford, in the old Sanford and Son TV show. Remember the drawer full of eyeglasses? Glasses for reading. Glasses for watching TV. Glasses for driving. Glasses for reading the phone book. Glasses to help you find lost glasses!

I guess I will have to give in and get me a pair of those dreaded BIFOCALS. Yeah, I know they make them differently than our grandparents’ bifocals. They try to disguise them with the transition lenses so that no one can tell you are wearing them.

Still, you feel kind of embarrassed that you have to get them. I have been in a lot of doctors’ offices in my time, and I have never heard a man walk up to the front desk and say out loud, "I'm here for my Viagra refill." Likewise, I don't see myself yelling out, "I'm here to get me some bifocals."

Or maybe I will brazen it out. Maybe I will ask for the bifocals with the line across the middle. Maybe I will hang my bifocals around my neck on a jeweled chain like the classy women used to do. I could peer over them at the young folks when they startle me with some of their "wise words.” How intimidating I would be!

Besides, its true -- the old saying that when you lose one sense, another sense compensates. I might not be able to see visually as well as I once did, but I can see some other things more clearly than ever.

Most folks my age know that vision isn't just about what the eyes perceive. It’s about what the brain knows and what the spirit discerns. Clear vision comes with experience and from lessons learned. So much of seeing is done without the eyes. Older folks know that clear vision comes with "seeing about,” "seeing after" and "seeing through.”

So many of our young folks, with 20/20 vision, are blind to the important things in life. Maybe we can open their eyes to what is real. Young folks might be able to thread needles and easily read store receipts, but they are blind to so many things that folks my age can see clearly.

They say " hindsight is 20/20.” Folks in my age group have the advantage of hindsight. We have lived long enough to see the result of decisions made and roads traveled. So while we call on younger folks to help us with things we can't see, let's make sure we are giving back to them in kind.

Our insights may be able to save them from pitfalls and wrong turns.
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D. Barbara McWhite grew up in York County and lives in Orange Park, Fla., with her husband and cat.

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