spring time in the garden....

a honey bee delighting over the spring crocus blooms..

our new mini daffodils...

St.Francis amongst the forsythia...

the perfect host.....

me, my toes and garden rocks.......

a year gone by...

It's been a year since I have populated this blog and it feels good to be here. I have been musing of late to begin a new blog because of the life event in the way of a significant birthday, but now it seems quite alright to continue on here. There needs not be anything 'new', so I will simply carry on ..... as does my life.

Yes, one week ago today (and it seems much longer), I had my 60th birthday. It has been so interesting the lead up to this day. I have reflected on this number much over the past months. It seemed to me that this birthday in particular had a feeling wrapped around it that I found sometimes difficult to understand. And by no mean was this a bad or ominous feeling, but just something of a nature that I for a while could not describe. It wasn't that I was trying to deny my age, which I have never done. And then it occurred to me that the word I kept hearing in my mind was the word 'urgent'. This word in itself does not at least for me conjure up a positive reflection, but this was the word that kept resonating with me. So I pondered just what this meant for me.

I have come into my "third third" in life. In other words I have reached the score of years that will take me from 60 to 80. The number 60 was a tough one for me to accept for a while.  I thought it  reflected 'oldness'. I remember other milestone birthdays in various ways. When I reached 30 I thought I was finally really a 'big girl' and when 40 came about I thought I knew most everything about life there was to know.... (ha). Then when I turned 50 I realized just how wrong I was about 30 and 40 yrs of age. Now at age 60 life is so different and of course so much of that is due to different responsibilities that my life has compared to previous years. I continue to have the pressures of work, but view them in a different light than before. Retirement is on the horizon and within reach (although I would like it to be sooner than later). I am no longer active in raising my family so those responsibilities are not in the forefront although being a parent never ceases.

The urgent part of my life now extends to what my priorities will be in my life from this time on. How will I live my days and what will I make decisions based on. There is no time to waste in each day that I am given. Each day is precious. I am by no means feeling morose about this sense of urgency, but instead it allows me to realize how important things in life are whether they are of large or small importance. I feel that I can finally give myself 'permission' to live a simpler way of life than in years past. Permission was often difficult for me because of pressures I placed on myself and now I have let a lot of those strings go and this feels quite ok. All of this has evolved over the past many years and now arriving at age 60 it seems to clarify it perfectly. My path is laid out in front of me and how I navigate along that path is of my own choosing to embrace. My wise mind resides closer to the surface these days and this is like a wellspring of knowledge that affords me comfort. I will never purport to know everything and make perfect decisions but I have the wisdom to understand what is best for me and how that might look in my life.

These next 20 years will involve the possibility of many changes in my life. I look forward to them and will embrace them as my life unfolds. My life won't be perfect I'm sure, but it will be the best life that I choose to live based on my history. It's time to live well. It's time to live simply. It's just simply time for so much to embrace in life.

Namaste,
Maggie