The adventure begins…

The swinging sixties!

Yay! I’m now a sexagenarian. Maybe some of you are wondering what the heck that means… Well, don’t let the first three letters of that strange-sounding word give you any funny ideas. All I’m saying is, I’ve survived the fifties, I’ve leaped over, (no, make that clambered over) the 60 barrier and I’m now in the swinging sixties. Wait a minute… SIXTIES did I say? I’m already in the seventh decade of my life? Gosh! Where did all that time go? Seems like just yesterday that I was practising how to jive to the beats of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock or the Beatles number When I saw her standing there or other foot-tapping songs that hit the airwaves on Radio Ceylon’s Binaca Hit Parade or All India Radio’s Saturday Date. Have I really been married for more than three decades? And how come I’m already a mother-in-law when I was a multi-tasking young mother only yesterday? Wasn’t it only the other day that I was crooning You are my sunshine from my heart as I put my boys to sleep? How could time have flown so fast?

Go on… grab your partner… shake a leg… celebrate!

A senior citizen

I remember how, not so long ago, I dreaded my fortieth birthday because it meant letting go of the thirties, and joining the ranks of the middle aged. I was in no mood to celebrate this milestone and dreaded having to admit to anyone that I was 40. I wished I could turn the clock back, began to worry about menopause and was petrified of the physical changes that would follow. But by the time I turned 50, I realized growing old was not such a bad thing after all and actually had a party to celebrate the occasion, telling myself I was not growing older, I was getting better. And then before I knew it I was 60. I was a senior. A senior citizen!

Surprisingly, I didn’t feel any panic about growing older, about venturing into the senior citizen years, for by now I had realized that there was more to life than looking young. I decided that growing older was going to be fun and on my own terms, and that I would live life to the full without feeling threatened by time marching on. I would continue to enjoy doing the things I loved, and go back to doing the many other things I loved but could not make time for earlier.

Older and wiser

And so, as a senior citizen, I now make time to sniff at the roses, and I’m not as rattled when scratched by a few thorns now and then. I take myself less seriously, in the sense that I accept I need not be perfect to be happy. I try to see the humorous side of things. And when I look back at some of the negative stuff (we all have our share of this, right?) from the new vantage point I’ve reached after covering many more miles on the road called life, I find I can understand what happened without getting all hot under the collar. I’ve learnt to accept the good and the not-so-good and get on with enjoying each day as it comes. I’ve decided to make the most of the time I’ve got, make the most of what I’ve got.

And so here I am, not staring down the barrel of the 60s, but rather, ready to hit the trail ahead firing on all cylinders. For life isn’t over at 60. I refuse to believe that the best is behind me. If you think I’m a fool for believing this, just look at what other seniors the world over are doing today – Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Clint Eastwood, Paul McCartney, Raquel Welch, Harrison Ford, Elton John, Hilary Clinton, Meryl Streep, Shabana Azmi, Shobha De, Sunil Gavaskar – they aren’t exactly sitting at home playing with the cat.

Bottom line: We’re still cool, more possibilities exist today than ever before, and we can still make a difference to our own life and that of others. And that is why as I script the first few pages of Chapter 7 of my life, I remind myself that age is just a number related to the years we’ve spent on planet earth. And that no matter what changes Time makes to our body’s external and internal geography, we can still feel as young as we want to.

If you like what you’ve read do stick around and visit often. And while you’re here, how about scrolling down, clicking on the comment button  and tapping out a few words about your own ‘coming of age’?

See ya… and keep smiling!