Musings: On Turning 60

1,036 weeks to go before I turn 80. 

I know some 80-year-olds who are wonderfully creative.  I know a fewer number of 80-year-olds who are actively participating in larger society and are instrumental in organizations, public service and/or business.  The older I get, the more people I can tell you about – people I admired, loved – who will never get to see the far side of 74.   

Later this week, my daughter will turn 21.  For a month plus a day, we were poised in numerical balance: she — 20 years since her first breath; I — 20 years to 80.  She steps into this shining, wild, wounded world while I mosey on, past middle-age, beyond. 

A good friend – 62 – says that we are in the youth of our old age. 

At 60, I am thinking about what is important. I’m not going to be able to do everything I want to do but I can do what feels non-negotiable. For me, that is writing and making art.   

Finally:  Patricia Walden’s YouTube video – 10 minutes of a flowing sequence of backbending poses, performed on her 60th birthday.  If you are not familiar with Walden – she is a soft-spoken and powerful senior teacher in the Iyengar tradition. Please watch this. It is stunning.

I am no Patricia Walden, but I am practicing with more diligence than I was 3 years ago.  Minus classes to teach and without in-person students, I focused on my yoga practice during the pandemic. Sirsasana (headstand) is a go-to pose again.  Sarvangasana (shoulderstand) and halasana (plow pose), too.  I’m challenging my scoliosis, daily, with standing poses, supta virasana and deep twists. 

I’m grateful.