This is 70: Grateful, Grounded and Ready for the Next Chapter

Embracing life

Today is my birthday. I never expected to be so happy at 70. Dare I say happy? What is happiness anyway? Okay, I’ll say I never expected to still feel good, to feel on top of my game, to be exploring opportunities and making new connections. To feel as if I have value and I am valued.

I know someone my age who calls herself a dinosaur. “Oh, woe is me, I’m so behind the times,” she’s fond of saying. Behind the times is not a good place to be, unless you’re satisfied being there. Saying woe is me tells me you aren’t happy. If that’s so, take action.

No one can feel contentment if they constantly feel they should be doing more, though. Part of getting older is letting go. It’s accepting what you can do, being comfortable with where you’re at, and knowing good things are yet to come. It’s a process of self-definition. Do you want to see yourself as a dinosaur?

Such negative stereotypes about being old or getting old take a toll not only on our bodies but our spirits, too. Particularly those we tell ourselves!

What I tell myself

Regrets have a way of creeping up on you, particularly in the middle of the night. Who doesn’t look back at their life and wish they had done something differently? Living is experience, however, and I didn’t know then what I know now. I can’t change the past. I can only move forward.

Uncertainty is unsettling, particularly not knowing what’s around the corner health-wise. Both my parents lived into their early nineties. They stayed mentally sharp and engaged in life. My mother once said things were good until she hit 85, then health problems caught up with her. My father at 93 was looking forward to golfing in the spring.

So, staying healthy is a plan. Sure, I feel older physically, but my knees and hips are good. I walk my dog at least a mile every day, sometimes twice. Five days a week I do strength training at home; I could always do more—work harder, heavier. Tomorrow I will.

I’m excited about my second novel, due to be published in the fall of 2026. I’m working on getting the manuscript Chicago-Style-ready for my editor. I can’t wait to share more with you about Love and Other Incurable Ailments closer to publication date. I’m also working on a collection of corgi haikus, written in the voice of my dogs, and an accompanying series of illustrations.

RUDE

That vacuum again.
It sucks my fur from the floor
and eats it. So wrong

Age as a number shouldn’t determine your value as a human being or how you feel about life. I never believed that growing older meant giving up creativity, cutting your hair short, or toning down how you dress.

As Lyn Slater, aka the Accidental Icon, writes in How to Be Old, “There are lessons I take with me as I begin my next decade, another opportunity for adventure. . . . I remain engaged in the extraordinary process of ‘aging—as David Bowie once said—’whereby you become the person you always should have been.’ Becoming is a process in motion and implies hope.”

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Thank you for visiting.
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist
Books: In the Context of Love | Gordy and the Ghost Crab | Sleepwalker
New novel,  Love and Other Incurable Ailments, coming fall 2026 from Regal House Publishing
Connect with Linda on social media: LinkTree