On Turning Sixty!

Today is the last day I’ll spend in my fifties. It’s been an excellent decade. I crammed so much living into the last ten years that my head’s still spinning. Disaster-relief nursing, volunteering at a homeless shelter, the marriage of one daughter, and becoming a grandmother. Plus working as a nurse until my recent retirement this month and completing the final draft of my memoirs.

The year I turned fifty, I travelled to Haiti, Pakistan, and New York.

Tomorrow I turn 60 and I will travel to…yup, my backyard! Staying safe seems a perfectly fine goal!

Because along came the pandemic. No travel. No camping. No visits with grandchildren. Stay home! Flatten the curve!

But I choose to embrace my sixties anyways.

Sixties bring acceptance. Acceptance that life doesn’t always go as planned. Awareness I’m just along for the ride and the ride will have its ups and downs. I miss my out-of-town family like crazy! But I’ll stay home so all in my circle can be together later, with no one missing from it.

I see social distancing as a time to recharge my batteries. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, probably since high school! If I plan to live as long as my parents, well into their nineties, I best take time for some self-care. Focus on my passions. Take stock of what’s important in life. Be the best sixty-year-old I can be.

I will garden to my heart’s content. I’ve planted sunflowers—five types—and a variety of miniature pumpkins, in hopes of giving them to my grandchildren this fall. I’m going to try to grow a giant pumpkin too. Why not?

I’ll photograph the wild birds and the flowers in my garden.

Laps previously swam in the pool will be traded now for laps rollerblading around our neighbourhood block. New tips for photography will be learned through online courses.

Apparently, I probably won’t stop doing so much! I have a list of movies and TV series to catch up on with my hubby. Both of these—not my husband! —have been pushed aside for ages.

I’ll pick up reading novels again. Starting with childhood favorites like Anne of Green Gables, that I began to read on a camping trip last summer and never had time to finish. Memories of Anne bring me joy. Our family even visited her “home” in P.E.I. in my childhood.

Classics will be read as well as my favourite crime novels by Mark Billingham. I will be swept away by the suspense in each book.

I may even become a better cook, but that’s doubtful. Let’s not get carried away! My focus will be on what brings me happiness, not stress.

But most of all, I will count my blessings. That I have a loving husband and family, and great health. And how for some reason, God has blessed me with time here on earth for six decades.

Thanks to Stefano Ferrario from Pixabay for the “Sixty” photo.

Thanks to Alexas Fotos from Pixabay for the frog photo.