The Big Six Oh

Earlier this year, I celebrated my 60th birthday. I use the word “celebrated” loosely, because I really didn’t feel much like celebrating. After all, once you hit 60, you’re getting up there! You’re not even “middle aged” anymore.

It was certainly different than my last milestone birthday! Having realized when I turned 40 that age is just a number and you’re always the same person deep inside, I just laughed when I turned 50. But so much has changed since then… the death of my favourite uncle, a dear friend of my dad’s who was like a family member, my mother-in-law, and a close friend who was close to my age, as well as being diagnosed with high blood pressure and osteoporosis. I was pretty convinced that it’s all downhill from here.

But then I thought about all the GOOD things that have happened during the last 10 years.

• My family has grown to include two lovely daughters-in-law, three sweet grandchildren, and an amazing dog.
• My business has continued to thrive and evolve – I’ve now been self-employed full-time for 12 years!
• I established a networking group for local virtual assistants which will be 10 years old next year, and is strong enough to carry on without me should I decide to step down (not that I plan to do that any time soon).
• My passions for reading and photography have been rekindled.
• I’ve travelled to Nova Scotia and Arizona.
• Scott and I have rented a cottage three times, and it looks like it’s now a yearly summer tradition.
• I had always regretted losing touch with people I went to school or church with, or worked with, at various times in my past, but through Facebook and my high school reunion, I’ve reconnected with many of them. Most significantly, I’ve reunited with two childhood friends who invited me to join their book club, which is a huge part of my life now.
• I’ve also made a few new friends!
• My blood pressure is good now, controlled with medication.
• It turned out that my bone density is no worse than it was when I was first tested; they’ve only changed the way they read the results.

So I guess it’s not so bad after all!

It’s still sometimes a shock to look in the mirror and see this older woman looking back at me. I can totally relate to Tom Hussey’s photo series, “Reflections of the Past.” Please check it out if you’ve never seen it – it’s quite wonderful! I really wanted to do something similar with my photos for this post, but I decided to settle for the side-by-side photos you see above.

“There is a very great difference between older and old, the former being desirable and the latter being inevitable.”
― Michelle Franklin