I am 60

It’s my birthday! Am I really a year older?

Nope – no different to yesterday. We are not a year older; we are a day older. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if we aged a year, or a decade, all at once – like we go through a door into the next decade and all the ageing changes happen at once. Now that would be quite a shock!

The changes are so minor we rarely notice, and then we look in a mirror and notice lines we perhaps haven’t seen before. But lines are just one aspect of living. And I like to think of us as living not ageing. Would we really want to stay looking the same – all the world in a peak state of beauty and fitness? But this is just one part of who we are – the external part.

There is also the person within. Over time we (mainly) become wiser. We learn from experiences, we read more, and we are better able to respond. Think about how much we have learnt over the past year or decade or go back even more. For some of us, like me, I was so very shy as a child. People used to say, Denise is deep. Nope, I wasn’t. I just didn’t know what to say so thought better to say nothing. I learnt to speak up more, to find more confidence through knowledge and experience. But I’m still not an extrovert and like to have time alone and feel comfortable with my own company.

I want to write each morning as I wake, reflecting on the day gone by. It may be helpful for others, and part of me would love to do a PhD into ageing, but I need a clearer focus on what I’m trying to find out so perhaps these entries will help me to find this.
I’d also love to hear from you – does anything make you think or want to share. I would love to hear from you.