Today I turn 60.
People like to say age is just a number. I’ve never believed that. Some numbers don’t just count years, they mark thresholds. Sixty feels like one of those thresholds. Not because life slows down, but because it clarifies. Perspective deepens, distractions lose their pull, and what matters comes forward with more weight and less noise. What has surprised me most, honestly, is how much I am still growing.
My fifth decade was my most expansive. I did more, learned more, stretched more, and became more myself than in any decade before it. Not by chasing youth or trying to keep up, but by trusting what I knew and acting from it. I feel genuine gratitude for that decade, for the work it asked of me and the confidence it returned. We’re rarely told to expect that.
The story we hear about aging is one of contraction. Smaller lives, fewer risks, and lower expectations. But that hasn’t been my experience. Growth didn’t taper off. Instead it concentrated. It became more intentional, more grounded, more effective.
At 60, I don’t feel finished. I feel resourced. That word surprised me when it showed up, but it fits. That knowledge didn’t arrive early. It came through living. Some of that living was joyful. Some of it wasn’t. I’ve made mistakes, chosen poorly at times, and often learned things the long way around. I don’t reframe all of it as “good,” but I can see now that none of it was wasted. It shaped my judgment, gave me compassion, and created in me a steadiness I couldn’t have arrived at any other way. I know how to begin things now, I know how to stay with what matters, I know what doesn’t deserve my energy, and I don’t overlook where that came from.
When I was 59, I stopped wearing makeup. Not as a statement. Not as a rule. I just didn’t need it anymore. What stayed with me wasn’t the change itself, but what it revealed: a comfort with being seen, a confidence that didn’t require assembly. That, too, feels like growth. Or maybe recognition.
Sixty isn’t about letting go of ambition or curiosity. It’s about letting go of what no longer fits. The urge to prove. The pull of comparison. The expectations that don’t belong to you. When those fall away, energy returns. Creativity sharpens. You stop managing yourself and start using what you’ve built.
If you’re approaching a number you’re unsure how to carry, this is what I know now: the number isn’t the limit, it’s the leverage. Everything you’ve lived, learned, tried, failed at, and carried forward becomes usable here. I’m grateful for the experiences that shaped me, even the difficult ones, because they allow me to step into 60 grounded, still growing, and attentive to what comes next. Not rushing it. Not fearing it, but building deliberately.
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