What 60 looks like....and a question for YOU

What 60 looks like...
on the Selinda Spillway in the Okavango Delta
Botswana

I have been thinking a lot about what a woman’s 60th year looks like. I can tell you it feels a whole lot better than my 59th year. About this time last year my air miles were off the charts and I was feeling well...tired..a weary tired. 

One year later.. a GOOD TIRED. 

This morning I twisted myself into some version of a Vinyasa yoga pose that looked nothing like my instructors. I looked over into the mirror and thought ...Jeanne, you idiot, why did you look? YOU look ridiculous...and proceeded to flow (collapse is more like it) into a Child Pose. My default pose when I can not keep it together...which happens often. 

This is just one of the classes pushing me into a "good tired". I am also working with a fitness trainer, Carol, two mornings a week. We work hard and it leaves me near crawling from her studio up a flight of stairs to the car park but it is a good tired and worth the energy.

 It doesn’t stop there, I am also taking a Fit Camp class two times a week with a group of ladies who groan along with me as we feel the burn. I can not remember the last group exercise class I took only because I tend to avoid them. I can't even remember the reason why but after the first class I knew I had been missing out on a great source of exercise and camaraderie. 

I love it...in a good tired way. 

This has only been going on for two weeks and I swear my family is taking bets on when I will give up and call it quits. I have been here before..with Danny in Vietnam. They think it is hysterical...and that keeps me going.

The GOOD TIRED is now turning into RENEWED ENERGY and that’s when 60 starts to look interesting. 

With my youngest off to college in two weeks and my focus shifting...I often ask my 60 year old self... what next? 

This question came up last month as I was bumping along in a jeep through the beautiful and remote 320,000 acre Selinda Reserve in northern Botswana. Each time I perched my camera to photograph one of life’s majestic wonders..I had that nagging question at the back of my mind...what next...MR. ELEPHANT? 

And then it happened... 

One afternoon, back at the lodge, I kicked off my boots, set my feet up and checked for an Internet connection when an email popped up. 

A long time follower of my blog wanted to throw out an idea to me. Would I be interested in hosting a Women’s Book Club Retreat at Tahilla Farm? Other words floated by...meditation, yoga, garden tour, cooking class and lots of hours of coffee/tea/wine talking about books. In my mind...The Brown Paper Book Club Retreat? At that point I ordered a beer. 

I knew this concept would need some thinking through. I mentioned it to Mr. H...he looked a bit frightened...the same look he gives me when I suggest we invite people to dinner. He says I turn into a maniac of perfection...me, a Virgo? Really?

I decided I had to go to my tribe... (men included)

In the woods...Tahilla Farm

This is where you come in...what do you think? 

Would you be interested in hanging out for a few days with fellow blog readers...thinking creatively in the woods of New Hampshire? 

If you had to pick five words from the list below, which would you pick? 

Books

Reading

Hiking

Yoga

Walking

Creating

Antiquing

Gardening 

Photography 

Writing 

Art 

Mindfulness 

Wellbeing 

Midlife health 

I selected the subjects that I have been writing about all these years...seems to make the most sense to stick with what you love. It's a start.

What I especially like about all this idea is that it takes me back to that first visit to Tahilla Farm. When I went house hunting down a dirt road and spied a studio in a barn. In that space an idea took hold...something very similar to this one. I knew one day it would come my way again...that "train of thought that can take you places that no other trains reach at all". 

It's as if he's simply taking his mind and imagination for a walk, 

and as they forage, as any dogs might do, 

he never quite knows where they will take him... 

looking for the road less travelled and the humble pleasures overlooked.

...it's in  the digression, the getting lost, 

the unexpected diversion that the joy of travel comes. 

Trains of thought can take you places that no other trains reach at all.

Pico Iyer

I would love to hear from you! 

Feel free to leave your thoughts 

wherever we happen to connect. 

On the blog

Email 

jeannecollageoflife@gmail.com

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Facebook 

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I am always open for discussion, 

if you would like to talk by phone or meet, 

let me know, always happy to connect! 

Jeanne xx

PS..apologies if you have trouble leaving a comment on my blog,

I have trouble leaving one too! Next on my list is an overhaul of my blog.

On that note: CHILD POSE!!