The Marks of Time - Guest blog with Chidinma Onyejiuwa

Under my eyes are puffy pads surrounded by dark circles, each unfortunate feature trying its best to call attention to the other. My wrinkles materialized overnight. Now the lines in my face remind me of my palms. When I raise my eyebrows, my forehead pleats, and when my eyebrows come down the pleats stay.

Just this year, my jaw, the Maginot Line of facial structure becomes surrendered to the force of gravity. Once I had a right-angle profile; now there's a hypotenuse between my chin and neck, with its double choker of lines; and my chest, creased like crepe paper; and my shoulders and arms, which are holding their own for now except the elbows, which are rough enough to shred a carrot. I don't yet have loose skin on the underside of my upper arm - you know, the part that keeps waving after you've stopped - but I can see it coming.

The truth is I'm not crazy about my looks but I can live with them. What jolted me out of my low-grade body image blues was the death of a friend felled by cancer last week. After the funeral, I saw my body, not as face, skin, hair or figure, but as the vehicle through which I could experience everything my friend would never know again. Ordinary pleasures seem so precious now that I vowed to set my priorities straight before some fatal illness did it for me. I now focus on things that matter for me in life. And I can assure you that being able to wear bikini isn't one of them.

Chidinma Onyejiuwa is a Nigerian blogger who resides in the USA. You can connect with her at www.chidinmaonyejiuwa.com