Age and birthdays have never meant much to me. However, turning 60 has made me want to reflect on a few things. Alot of life has happened in the past 60 years AND I have so much still to do with a ticking clock.
I decided to look up why this particular birthday feels so significant and here are some comments and thoughts I found.
For many, the age of 60 symbolizes the onset of a decade brimming with changes, newfound freedoms, and the exciting prospect of embarking on new adventures. In a society that often places a premium on youth and vitality, there is a quiet revolution unfolding among those in their sixties.
Sixty is not middle-aged. Not even close. Sixty is a reckoning with the truth of mortality, with change, with a new sense of myself as finite.
Sixty is time to let go of perfection. Time, also, to give up comparing, worrying, arguing over petty things, and taking slights personally.
The meaning of life at age 60 can vary greatly from person to person, often shaped by individual experiences, beliefs, and circumstances. However, several themes commonly emerge during this stage of life:
I'm turning 60, and—please don't take offense—I no longer have to be concerned about what anyone thinks of me! (You know, the old Am I doing it right? Am I saying it right? Am I being what or who I'm "supposed" to be?) I'm turning 60, and I've earned the right to be just as I am. I'm more secure in being myself than I've ever been.
“becoming a crone” (that is, a wise old woman) at the age of 60
I do know it is a time to be grateful.
I can now see how we affect others lives and don't even know it. We do so in the kind words we say, the smile we greet them with, a helping hand. It is not necessarily what we do in our professional capacity with others but our essence of who we are that impacts them.
Also. I know understand the statement "Do not compare your inside to someone else's outside". Another words, just because someone looks like they have it all, seem to have it all together, know where they are going...... it might just be a good show. They might be (and usually are) searching, nervous, insecure but have mastered their outsides to cover up their insides. Don't be fooled and feel bad about yourself. We are all in the same boat - some boats are just well shined.
