The Big 60

I’ve been sixty for about two weeks. That makes me an expert, right? I was depressed a bit on the first day. One of those things people say is “but it’s all about how old you FEEL!” That’s a bunch of bunk. I am sixty. I feel sixty, because, well, being sixty means that however I feel, that is how sixty feels.

Sixty feels creative. I’ve begun drawing again – and I say again because I’ve been going through all the sentimental things that my family has kept, and discovered that many years ago (decades), I used to draw, or at least doodle, so that means I’m drawing AGAIN. My daughter gave me watercolor paints for my birthday, and I’ve begun to paint. Badly, but that’s beside the point. Apparently, sixty is an age where it doesn’t matter whether you do something well or poorly, you just say “whatever,” and start doing it!

Sixty feels expressive. Two decades ago, we bought a piano (real, not electric or digital or whatever) for the kids to learn to play, because that’s what you did in the old days. One daughter still plays, but on the digital piano that fits in her apartment. I’ve been lugging this piano from house to house, and finally got it tuned again (and it needs to be tuned again, because when it’s pathetically out of tune, it takes a few tunings some months apart to get it back to full health), and I just pulled out some of that Easy Version of Phantom of the Opera songs, and, by golly, I’m enjoying myself playing piano. There’s no kids or husband around to frown when I hit an E instead of a C, so no problem, no judgment, just enjoyment. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even start singing with it.

Sixty feels nomadic. I’m heading up to northern Michigan to search for Petosky stones and check out Sleeping Bear Dunes. This fall I hope to go on a road trip to Kentucky to check out where my mom grew up. And over the winter, I’m driving out to LA with my two dogs to spend a few months with my daughter and her boyfriend. I’m going to hike in Runyon Canyon, and drive out to Death Valley. Maybe I’ll finally get around to planning a trip to Alaska, to see glaciers before they melt.

Sixty feels like a balancing act. It’s giving enough time to an elderly parent, and making memories with your adult children, and spoiling yourself by ignoring both of those. It’s finally knowing that you can’t make everyone happy, so just try to do the right thing, and watch out for your own health and sanity along the way.

Sixty feels like freedom and is full of possibilities. Sixty feels like the wisdom to know that it’s better to do something Now if you want to do it, because you don’t know how sixty-five will feel. So, yeah, I feel like sixty, and I recommend it highly!