I see a wiser person than when I was younger: having babies, and

The actress Thandie Newton once spoke with candor: “I see a wiser person than when I was younger: having babies, and passing 30, were the turning points. What women in their 40s—I am 39—lack in gorgeousness, they make up for in wisdom. I love ageing, despite the drawbacks—thinner, drier skin.” These words, though spoken in the language of her time, carry the eternal truth of the human journey. Youth dazzles with its beauty, but age endows the soul with wisdom, which is a greater jewel than any charm of the body.

The ancients too sang of this mystery: that the vessel may weaken, yet the flame within grows brighter. For every line upon the face is a scripture, written not by chance, but by trials endured and victories won. Newton names childbearing and the passage of thirty years as her turning points—thresholds where the soul sheds its old garments and takes on the mantle of deeper knowing. Just as the river deepens as it flows farther from its source, so too does a woman deepen with the years.

Consider the story of Sophia of Constantinople, who in her youth was admired for her beauty, but it was in her age that she became a true guide to her people. When war and famine fell upon the city, the young sought her counsel, for she had walked through sorrow and survived. Her face, lined and weathered, carried no luster of youth, but her words steadied trembling hearts. Beauty fades like flowers in the sun, but wisdom endures, like the cedar rooted in the mountain soil.

Newton’s embrace of ageing is itself a victory, for the world too often mourns the fading of beauty and forgets to honor the rise of inner strength. She sees in herself not decline, but transformation: a passage from the fleeting to the eternal, from outward charm to inward power. Where the skin grows thinner, the spirit grows thicker, armored with patience, insight, and compassion.

Let the generations remember: gorgeousness may open doors, but wisdom builds kingdoms. The young may dance in light, but it is the elder who keeps the fire burning through the long night. Newton’s words are a hymn to this truth—that time is not an enemy, but a sculptor, carving away the unnecessary until only the essence remains. To love ageing is to love life itself, in all its stages, from the flower to the fruit, from the fruit to the seed.