Turning Point: Reinventing Myself After Sixty

I turned sixty years old this month and the sunset of my life looms ahead of me. It is not all bad. For a woman, sixty years old can be liberating. Age alone gives us a certain amount of credibility. Sociability and charm is no longer interpreted as ‘sexually provocative’ conduct, and personal success is no longer ascribed to taking advantage of our feminine wiles. We are finally accepted for our talents, our achievements and our character! My sympathies go out to all of the young, beautiful women out there who are also incredibly gifted, intelligent and successful. I know the slurs they suffer and it is so unfair, but I am off point already. 

I just turned sixty and I am experiencing a crisis of sorts. The beauty that I took for granted as a young woman has faded, I no longer have a waistline and health issues are rearing their ugly head. I have far fewer years in front of me than I have behind, and I am once again conscious of all of the things I put off for ‘someday’ and never found the time to do. I have learned that a crisis can be a turning point- if I am willing to make changes.

In the past, I was willing and able to make those changes.  This is not the first time I have been in this place.  I faced a similar crisis when I was thirty and realized that I had achieved none of my life’s goals. I had married young, given birth to two sons, divorced, and found myself a single parent with all of my childhood dreams and goals so far from my grasp that I thought I would never achieve them. Over the next ten years, I earned both my Bachelors and Masters Degrees, moved to Florida, and  bought a home.  (Oh yes, I remarried too, but that relationship proved just another costly and painful mistake.)

I had a similar crisis at the age of forty. I was trapped in a marriage where I found myself constantly enabling an abuser. I also realized that I had achieved all of the goals that I had set for myself years ago and had nothing left to look forward to, no goals left to work towards. Where at thirty I had been frightened, at forty, I was depressed. It took a lot of courage, but I divorced, bought a new house and started a new job, all within a few short years. I experienced a similar crisis at fifty, which is when I started to write and paint.

Here I am at sixty, another turning point. Once again, I must make changes in my life and set new goals, but that is another post. This, I thought, might help explain what this blog is all about.  I will explore new goals and chart my progress. I hope some of you will follow me as I once again reinvent myself after sixty.