I celebrated a big one this year

October 2025
I’m not exactly sure how this happened but I turned seventy in September. That is a lot of years of living. To my friends in their eighties, I’m a spring chicken and I have to say that seventy does kind of feel like the new fifty.  My besties took me out to a fancy dinner to celebrate and as I reviewed the decades, I began to see how each decade shaped me into who I am today. My twenties were a time of exploration, of trying on different identities, living in different places and being immersed in graduate school. My thirties were all about building a career, creating a family and developing deep friendships. My forties brought turmoil and a reckoning. It was a time of questioning. Time to move out of my comfort zone. And time to push myself to own what truly mattered to me. My marriage of 20 years ended, I lost my father (one of my biggest cheerleaders), I shifted my career focus and fell in love with a woman. Talk about shaking up my life. And in my fifties, I began to find my authentic voice, no longer defined by others’ expectations. It was also in my fifties that I found my artistic home and artistic voice. By my sixties, that voice had deepened into a grounded sense of self, one that felt whole and true. 

Now, at seventy, I feel a sense of freedom that comes from knowing who I am and what I value most. I still have things I want to do—projects to pursue, art to create, people to nurture, and grandchildren to love. My work continues to bring meaning, and I am grateful for the quiet wisdom that comes with experience. This age feels significant not as an ending, but as a new window into living more consciously, with clarity and grace. 

Art will continue to be an essential part of this next chapter. Through it, I can express the layers of my life. The beauty, the struggle, the strength and the resilience. Creating keeps me curious and open to my inner world. As I move into this new decade, I want to stay focused on what matters most. I want to live with intention. And I want to embrace each day that I can with openness and possibility.