THIS is Sixty

“We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the paths of life.” -Carl Jung

This week I turned 60. For the last couple of years, I’ve been anticipating some sort of #thisissixty post. I had this idea it would be some sort of triumphant “look I made it” thing. But now I’m here (and older and wiser), and I’ve realized a couple of things. First, sixty is not the end. It’s the continuation. And now, I get to take everything that has happened so far, acknowledge and release the negative, and embrace what’s next. This leads me to the second realization. I am never too old to continue to learn and grow. Because, even at sixty, we can change our lives, we can write a new chapter, choose a new adventure. 

When I was hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park on my birthday, I was thinking about the uphill climb that is Life. A bunch of years ago, I bought a book by @danmillmanpw , author of The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. In it, he uses the analogy of finding your life purpose and how it’s like climbing a mountain. We each have our own mountain to climb. Sometimes there is a steep uphill, other times we coast on a flat or a downhill. But get this. We can never fall off the path because with every step, it appears. 

When I looked at the fallen trees on my climb, I realized they were like beautiful mistakes, creating an obstruction in the path, yet climbing over them made me stronger. We each climb our own mountain, and choose our own path. There are lots of obstructions (hello 2020, lookin’ at you) but they are not impossible to get around. There is also a lot of beauty. And today, I choose the beauty. And THIS is sixty.