Circles

Life is a massive circle, going round and round in never ending cycles. Circles in the universe as planets orbit and spin on themselves, continuing life and death cycles, seasons coming round again, and so the list goes on. As I approach my sixtieth birthday next month, I am more aware of the effect of these circles or life's patterns that are similar across any generation. My least favourite age was as I approached thirty, the jump from being twenty nine to thirty was like a chasm, when youth would be lost in one fell swoop! Being forty was no big deal however, it came and went fairly quietly but my fiftieth birthday was the first time I really thought about getting old and viewed as such by my peers. Now as my sixtieth birthday rears its head, I feel a little bemused by it all.

I live in a world where appearance is king and so many people and media programmes are consumed with the need to retain youth and all its promises, well what a load of rubbish. Yes, getting older is cruel on the body but there are so many advantages that really can outweigh the negatives. A bit like a fine wine, a seasoned building, an experienced life that has learnt from mistakes and mishaps. There is currently an e-book at number one called 'Thursdays in the Park', which is about a sixty year old finding a new romance http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thursdays-in-the-Park-ebook 
It features older people rather than perfectly groomed and stick thin twenty somethings.

I feel privileged to be sixty, I have my own opinions, I can see pitfalls and I recognise the circles in life to beware or change for the better. There are some grumpy old people but equally, there are grumpy people in all generations. Being sixty today is very different from being sixty a few decades ago. I am not required to grow old gracefully or retire to my armchair, I intend to look for the new shoots and nurture growth, rather than be constrained within the circle of 'autumn years'.

Yes, the skin I life in, is growing old, but inside this skin is a comfort, a serenity and a wisdom that has been earned through experience in the various cycles and circles of the last six decades. So next  month, I will set off towards the Caribbean sun to celebrate my age, I will raise my glass to this new decade, and continue in another circle of life and to enjoy the current cycle in which I live.

Cheers!