The Expected & Unexpected Seasons Of Life Before & After 60

Life has seasons, everyone says so. But nobody really explains what it feels like when you are standing right in the middle of one, taking it all in and slowly realizing that things are changing in subtle ways. One day you are changing diapers, raising kids, packing lunches and driving everyone to all their activities. The next day the house is quiet, you are looking at a cup of coffee and a life that suddenly looks very different.

…And somewhere along the way, you realize something pretty surprising. You are still you. But with wisdom, experiences and a life that has unfolded in ways you never thought possible and with plenty of life still to look forward too. And that, my friend, is the beauty of the seasons of life.

🌼Spring: Everything is Shiny & New🌼

The early years feel like spring where everything and anything feels possible. You are working, falling in love, getting married and raising children. You are figuring out how to run a household, pay the electric bill, grocery shop, figure out what to make for dinner (every night 🙄) and get the rent or the mortgage paid. You are full on adulting! And for most people, this is a pretty exciting time. Life moves fast and life is lived out loud! Spring is chaotic but it is also beautiful in the best possible way. You are planting seeds everywhere and hoping that some of them will take root and grow.

🍓Summer: The Busy, Beautiful, Crazy Middle🍓

Summer is the season where life is full, loud and very demanding. You are working, parenting, hosting holidays, driving the kids to practices and all of their activities and maybe volunteering at your child’s school or at your church. You do your very best to keep the house running smoothly and to keep everyone’s schedules on track. Oh yea, and the dinner thing continues. 😂 You do all this while wondering why the laundry never seems to be done. This is the season of life where you are trying to raise good human beings with proper values, have a full and happy family life and, literally, just hold it all together. Summer is the season of responsibility. It’s long days and full calendars! It is also joy and filled with the wonder and pride of watching your children learn, grow and start to become who they will be! You may be too busy to notice when you are knee deep in summer, but this is where lots of the roots of your life are growing.

🍁Fall: A Little Perspective Settles In🍁

One day, fall shows up. Fall just might be the most interesting season of life. It is just a little more settled, just a little calmer, the noise of the earlier years starts to quiet down. You may still have kids at home but they are older and much more self sufficient. You actually start to have a little time for yourself. By the time you arrive here, you have had enough experiences and lived enough life to start to see things a little differently. You have loved and maybe lost. You have made plenty of mistakes and hopefully learned from them. You have seen some of your plans work out perfectly…and others fall apart completely. You begin to see things more clearly. There is also a kind of confidence that shows up in the fall, not the loud (unsure) confidence of spring, but the steady confidence that comes from knowing who you are , what you value, what you will tolerate, and more importantly, what you won’t! Fall is also when many people start rediscovering who they are, the version of themselves that had to be set aside during the busier seasons. Sometimes old interests return and new passions appear and there is finally time to explore them. It is a richer season, there is depth in the fall and there is wisdom in the fall. You realize that life still has many chapters left to write and more seasons to be lived!

🌷The Unexpected Season: Middle-Aged & Single🌷

This is a season that does not happen for everyone and it is a season of life that people don’t talk much about. Sometimes it happens because of a divorce, sometimes a loss is experienced. Sometimes life just throws something at you that never saw coming. People tend to think of it as something that is unfortunate and needs to be remedied as soon as possible. But the truth is…it can be one of the best seasons of life. By the time you may find yourself in this situation, you know yourself, you know what matters and what doesn’t, you know what drains your energy and you know exactly what the life you want to live looks like. The freedom in that is indescribable! You can arrange your days exactly the way you want to, eat your dinner when you want to, eat exactly what you want, decorate your space without having to take anyone else’s tastes into consideration, come and go exactly as you please, you have nobody but yourself to take care of and there is no negotiating over the thermostat or the remote control! Pretty great!!! Am I right? There is a deep sense of satisfaction knowing you can stand firmly on you own two feet. It is not loneliness, it is autonomy, it is freedom! You don’t feel the pressure of pleasing or impressing anyone else, you are simply living your life 100% on your own terms. And if love shows up again one day, that is wonderful too!

⛄ Winter: Or Is It? ⛄

People tend to call the later years in life winter. Honestly, I am not buying into that nor do I agree with it. Winter implies that things are winding down and I sure don’t feel wound down and I am quite sure that there are more people than not out there who would agree with me. I feel clearer, I feel stronger and, without a doubt, I am more myself than I have ever been. Yes, there have been losses, yes, there have been difficult chapters and yes your life may have changed in ways you could never have anticipated but you can reinvent yourself in any season. You can absolutely decide your life is not finished or that your opportunities or chances for adventure are not over just because the calendar says so. You get to decide what is on YOUR calendar!

🌹My Current Season: It Is Pretty Great!🌹

Right now I am living in a season that I never expected but welcomed with a full heart, loads of excitement and hope for the future. Doors closed, plans changed, a job was lost. But, as they say, when one door closes another one opens and there were some pretty great things behind the doors that opened for me. And I am here to tell you that I don’t, for one single second, take any of it for granted. My heart is filled with gratitude and love for this new season of life. I was lucky enough to have love show up again! And he is pretty great! I am learning so much in this new season as well. I have learned that I still don’t have everything figured out but I can keep moving forward. I am still thinking, still creating and still learning new things. I am still capable of doing something really great with the years I have in front of me. I started sharing my life through this blog and my YouTube channel “Kyla, Apparently-65 Going on 28. It is a whole ton of fun! And all this tech stuff is keeping my mind sharp. They say that that is important in the later seasons😉. I spend time with my kids and my grandkids, am fortunate enough to do some travelling and always have some sort of creative project in the works. Life doesn’t stop just because you enter a new season!

😊The Real Secret Of The Seasons 😊

The real secret of the seasons is simple. They all matter. Spring teaches you hope, summer teaches you responsibility, fall teaches you wisdom and if you experience the unexpected season of being middle-aged and single, it teaches you independence and confidence. And the later years, they teach you freedom. Freedom to be exactly who you are. So whatever season you find yourself in now- whether it feels like spring, summer or fall or something completely unexpected- remember this, you are not finished. You are simply becoming the next version of yourself! And honestly, that might be the best season of all!

👩‍🦰 A Few Things I Have Been Loving In This Season Of Life 👩‍🦰

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