Sixty is the new sixty
Today’s the day that I officially mark the start of my 7th decade on this planet. Like many of you, I’m learning that aging is not at all how I thought it would be. My earliest birthday memories are from my fifth birthday. I remember that I had a birthday party, attended by my newly-minted friends from school. I remember some of my birthday gifts, and can even remember how they smelled. Board games of the 60s had a very distinctive boardgamey smell, or at least they do in my memories.
People were older, then. At least they seemed older, when you compare them to people of the same age, today, They dressed older, and acted older. They’d talk fondly of the things that they used to do. It would always sound like the start of a fairy story… long, long ago, in a land far away. I think part of the difference was physical, but the majority of it was mental. I think (I’m old), therefore I am.
Today, as I celebrate my sixtieth birthday, I recommit to my life to being like a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ book. I’ve thought a lot about this, and it really does seem that simple to me. We get to choose how we live our lives… who we are, what we think, and what we do. It is all too easy to let others pigeonhole you, but contrary to what the Borg had to say on the matter, resistance is not futile. We all get to choose how we live our lives (just accepting rather than choosing is a choice, of sorts), and I choose to live my life to the fullest. What that fullest life is, what it looks like and feels like will be different for all of us, but we do all have that choice.
Choose wisely!
Sixty is the new sixty
Sixty is the new sixty
Ours to shape, ours to own
To be whoever and however
Whenever we want to be
If we let them
Doors close as we age
Options decline
The world can seem smaller
Sixty is the new sixty
If doors close
Kick them down
Or decide to make new ones
Sixty is the new sixty
If options decline
Create your own
Choose them… choose you
Sixty is the new sixty
If the world seems smaller
Choose to see and explore
Its infinite fractal beauty
Sixty is the new sixty
If voices say you shouldn’t
Quieten them by showing
You can and you will
Sixty is the new sixty
Celebrate your past
While living fully in the present
Tomorrow will be here soon enough
Photo by Travis Yewell on Unsplash
Happy sixtieth! Cheers for another sixty to come full of adventures and awe!
Fantastic. Happy birthday to you!
The Japanese have this idea of life having set roles, in sort of a cycle. 0-20, you learn. 20-40, you produce. 40-60, you teach. When you reach 60, the cycle begins again and your past obligations are lifted. What do you want to learn next?
I like that idea. I’m going to start with something simple, like paddleboarding. ?