So this happened. I actually turned 60 this very day. I’m sure I’ve already touched on this subject in my blogging, but hey, I’m 60… I repeat things and I forget things. It’s now my right (or my wrong). In the video game of life I’ve made it to the next level. I am blessed and grateful. Time and age has finally caught up with me. I’m NOT one of those people that has been trying to outrun 60. I knew it was coming, just on the cusp and I’ve been ready for it. I’ve been referring to myself as 60 all year. Just trying it on for size.
I think there is a certain privilege and responsibility to carry the number 60 as the measurement of my time on this earth. I’m entering a new season of my life and I’m looking forward to it. I’m hoping to make much fewer mistakes and to get more things right. Guess this means that I truly am an adult. I still don’t feel like one. But I do get rare glimpses of adulthood in myself from time to time. Like when I’m praying fervently for my adult children. Or when I’m at Service Canada getting a code to look up my CPP entitlement. Or when I notice my knees have wrinkles … of course there are the stray gray hairs that just do whatever they want like stick straight up as if to say ‘hey everyone look at me’. Those grey hairs are like fishing line on steroids. Don’t even get me started on the hot flashes. My husband says I snore as well these days. I know I snore as I have woken myself up with my snoring several times. Scared the life out of me.
My first office job I used a typewriter with carbon paper, one mistake and you toss the whole thing out and start over. A teletype (which was like sending Morse code really), a gestetner with a side winding handle to make copies and a telephone with a receiver attached to the main dial portion by a coil cord. I worked in a bank and the only way to get money out was to stand in line for a teller. This makes me feel ancient. Although it’s not my fault that technology has advanced faster than the speed of light these past 40 years.
Mostly I don’t want any do overs. I certainly don’t want to do over my mistakes but I also don’t want to do over the good times or successes either. I just want to live off the good memories and create new ones. I’ve been 60 for less than 24 hours and I’ve already made a couple of mistakes and behaved unbecomingly. Oy vey! I am a work in progress.
I mean let’s face it, I’m basically the same person today at 60 as I was yesterday at 59, with the same flaws, fears and insecurities. There is nothing magic about progressing a year. I’m hoping and praying that I will grow and mature a bit more this coming year and by the time I’m 80 I will have earned a certain respect for the growth, maturity and wisdom I covet.
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It’s a new year and a new season. I will attempt to handle it with grace.
The Red Plaid Apron 