Not Getting Old – Becoming More. Becoming a Grandma Soon.

There is a beautiful tune I’ve been listening to and watching lately. It is sung by a woman over fifty who playfully reflects on getting, or not getting old. Every time I hear it, I imagine making my own version.

Simply because I just don’t feel old!

When I turned fifty, I remember feeling incredibly happy. Not because of the number itself, but because I had reached that milestone feeling strong, capable, and grateful for life.

A few years later, that feeling was shaken. Someone else’s actions reopened wounds I thought had long healed and brought years of buried trauma rushing back into my life. For a while, I wasn’t living, I was surviving.

But today…

Today I am sixty. And I am happy again.

Not because life has been easy, but because I have crossed an invisible line. Somewhere along the way, I stopped surviving and started living.

There is a profound difference.

Survival means making it through another day.

Living means making plans, dreaming, laughing, traveling, creating, loving, and saying “yes” to experiences simply because your heart wants to.

It means finally believing that you deserve a joyful life.

Just a few weeks ago, life handed me another beautiful surprise.

In January 2027, I will become a grandmother!

Even writing those words makes me smile.

My daughter and her husband are expecting a little boy, a wonderful little bundle of joy. He is healthy, already deeply loved, and I have no doubt he will grow up surrounded by kindness, encouragement, laughter, and unconditional love.

What more could anyone wish for?

The thought of holding him fills my heart in an indescribable way.

Of course, there is one little complication: they live in San Diego.

My first reaction was excitement. Everyone else’s first reaction was, “So… are you moving?”

Truth be told, I considered that possibility a couple of years ago when my children thought they all could live there. But higher education taken by the younger ones will not allow that in the foreseeable future.

Over time I realized something important.

California is beautiful. My oldest and her husband may belong there… I… probably don’t.

The pace, the lifestyle, even the cost of living simply don’t feel like me.

I’m an “always doing something” kind of person. I love projects, adventures, creating, learning, exploring. My energy has always pushed me toward the next challenge, the next Camino, the next dream.

And that’s okay for now.

Because loving your family doesn’t require living next door.

As parents, we spend years teaching our children to become independent adults. We give them roots, but we also give them wings.

Then comes the hardest lesson of all: Trusting them to fly and take off.

We give our children roots… and then we trust them to fly.

Would I love having my children just a short drive away? Absolutely!

I’d love spontaneous dinners, Sunday afternoons together, and being the grandma who can babysit with just a phone call.

But life doesn’t always unfold according to our preferences. It unfolds according to everyone’s journey.

And love has never been measured in miles.

Thankfully, my grandson will also have another set of wonderful grandparents nearby. My son-in-law’s parents are loving, kind people, and I know they will be present in all the moments when I cannot be.

That thought brings me peace.

I do wish we lived closer. And when I think if will I miss birthdays, little milestones, and ordinary Tuesdays… my heart drops…

But I also know this.

Nothing in life is set in stone. And even stones can be broken.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Because here is the funny part: I don’t feel like I am older because I will be a grandma… I feel like my life has just began!

For now, I choose joy.

I choose gratitude.

I choose excitement.

I choose traveling coast to coast.

And I choose to celebrate this new chapter that life has placed before me.

So here’s to sixty.

Here’s to healing.

Here’s to living instead of surviving.

And here’s to grandmas.

Especially the ones who are still discovering that some of life’s greatest adventures begin long after the world tells us they should be slowing down.

🌷