Supple at 60…

I’ve been 60 for one whole week. Two days after my birthday, one of my close college friends who has already turned 60, used the word “supple” to describe life at 60. I stepped back when she said it. I was like, “wow” what a word to use. Supple. Hmm. Then, I thought, “okay, yeah!” The definitions for supple include:

Supple: bending readily without breaking, flexible, smooth and agreeable to the touch; not rough or coarse, characterized by ease, responsiveness, and adaptability in mental action; readily adaptable or responsive to new situations; capable of being bent or folded without creases, cracks or breaks; easy and fluent without stiffness or awkwardness.

But then, it got even better. Lonna Hooks stated a combination of three special words to sum up an outlook on women in the 60s: Soft, Supple and Sage. Oh my goodness, blow my mind open and insert pure joy. I have been absorbing these three words for this first week of being 60 and every time I think about them, I smile. They say so much.

Definitions for soft include:

soft: yielding readily to touch; relatively deficient in hardness like metal or wood; pleasing or agreeable to the senses; bringing ease, comfort or quiet; having mellow rather than bitter or acid taste; smooth or delicate in texture, grain or fiber; rising gradually; having curved or rounded outline; marked by a gentleness, kindness or tenderness; occurring at such a speed and under such circumstances as to avoid destructive impact.

Now, after reading the definitions for supple and soft, do those definitions conjure up women you know who are in their 60s today? Or, women even in their early 70s? I can think of many. Those words describe the lives that I am seeing many of my friends live right now. They don’t feel “old” and they aren’t acting old. They are flexible, adaptable, responsive to new situations all of the time, not stodgy, ready to embrace new adventures and not only are they mentally sharp, they actually have few creases and cracks too because these women take care of their bodies.

So many of the women I know in their 60s today show kindness, they live with ease and comfort, they are pleasing and easy to get along with, they are smooth in their approach to life, calm in the way they treat each other, mellow about life’s trials & tribulations and actually still rising gradually in their achievements, yet plodding along at a pace whereby they land softly enough to not cause destruction to others.

Just this week, on the TODAY Show, Maria Shriver interviewed four women in their 60s or just about to be 60: Tina Knowles Lawson (yep, Beyoncé’s mother), Rita Wilson, Lisa Kudrow and Megan Mullally.  Here’s a link to the interview, it was great to see: https://www.today.com/video/lisa-kudrow-rita-wilson-and-more-hollywood-women-discuss-aging-with-maria-shriver-69765189605

Listening to them, they feel vibrant yet they talked about how their industry has tried to dismiss them because of their age. They talked about what has surprised them about aging. One thing they said is they wish people would stop saying “women should do things that are ‘age appropriate’ because there shouldn’t be a category/a box for that.  As I listened to them, I had a thought. Maria Shriver asked them what would they say to their younger selves. That’s a question I often hear women asked a lot too. I don’t want to be asked that. Instead, I am focusing on what I want to say to myself now. Tina Knowles Lawson said she’s really focusing on being unapologetic about who she is now and what she wants to do now. Yes to that!

That brings me to the third word that Lonna told me for how she now sees this wonderful decade of 60: sage. What have we benefited from to get to this point? The foundation that we stand on came with experiences, good and maybe some not-so-good, but we gained from all of those experiences.

Definitions of sage:

Sage: a profoundly wise person; wise, judicious, prudent; someone venerated for the possession of wisdom, judgment and experience; a wise through reflection and experience; one distuinguished for judgment; discerning, insightful; great understanding of people and of situations; mental soundness, rationality and levelheadedness.

Yes, that tops it. Sage is the cherry on top and wraps it all up for me. Women who are doing well and truly living their best lives in their 60s indeed have taken their experiences, what they’ve lived through, what they’ve learned and packed it all into a package called discernment & wisdom. They possess judgment and insight that reflects from whence they’ve come. I am not saying that we are all-knowing or without fault, but often we have taken the dents and nicks from our experiences and developed understanding of situations and people. We’ve put what we have gone through to good use.

So, a few months ago I was approaching 60 with some trepidation. I had loved being in my 50s, truly enjoyed those years. I didn’t feel “old” and I saw women friends and family members who were already in their 60s and they didn’t seem old either. So, I decided to celebrate my upcoming birthday just for the fun of it but I felt cautious. And, I reached out to women and asked them to share their thoughts on being in their 60s … I am in the process of compiling their input and you will see that soon in future blogs or other formats.

My family indulged me with a fabulous 60th birthday celebration weekend that I am still feeling the glow of. That weekend will stay with me for a long while and my gratitude for it will last forever.

And, thanks to my dear friend Lonna, I have a super way of thinking about the decade of my 60s: Soft, Supple and Sage. I smile just writing that again. It sounds good, it feels good and it will be great.

Soft, Supple, Sage … 60!