I have subtitled this blog Live your best life at any Age —it is never too late.  Do  you really believe this?  Do I? Is it truly never too late? I started this blog as an inspiration to others, and myself, that it truly is never too late.  I started it as I turned seventy. I went to law school at 50, started my own practice at 55 and then relocated and started over at 60.  I did that.  I wanted to keep that theme. For my seventieth birthday I did my “grand adventure”—20 days down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon in a dory.  (A wooden boat designed after the boats John Wesley Powell used when he first explored the Colorado River).  I restarted the blog a number of times. Sometimes I was very consistent and sometimes not. I used some of my blog posts as a basis for speeches.  Again, inspirational and entertaining.

I work with women and men who are having to begin again after the dissolution of their marriage.  I always try to encourage them and show them that there truly is a new life for them.  It is not too late to begin again. It is important that I believe that in order to be genuine and believable for them.

September last year (2020) I had to acknowledge that it would be my last year in my seventies.  It was time to blog about saying good by to 70.  I thought my 79^th birthday was a good time to start. Only I didn’t. Then there are those New Year resolutions.  Of course, January of the last year of my seventies.  That would be a good time to resume.  Only I didn’t. Beginning of spring,   Summer solstice, start of new school year, etc etc etc. would be a good time to start.  Only I didn’t. I accepted an August 31 day challenge.  The first three days I did.  I then realized the prompts were all to build my business or sell something.  I didn’t want to do that.  I could have changed the prompts and continued the challenge.  Only I didn’t.   So here I am on the last day of being in my seventies (I know, I know, why do we count?  Because we do).

Now it is truly time to put up or shut up.  Is it truly never too late to begin again. I believe it is not. I collect stories of women (and men) who found it is never too late to begin again.  I am finding stories of folks in the 80s 90s and even 100 who are active and involved. They have no problem beginning a new project of phase in their life.

Sometimes ritual helps.  I just saged my home to get rid of all those bad vibes from the last year.  Tomorrow I am going to a spa that scrubs all your dead skin off and the nourishes the new skin.  I find that to be a wonderful metaphor. I am not sure what other rituals I will find—or invent.  I say midnight tonight I turn (gasp) 80.  I don’t know if that is true since I don’t know the actual time of my birth.  My mother said I was born in a bomb shelter and she did not know if it was day or night.  (Kiddies, for your history lesson, this was during the BIG war)   So at midnight I may light a candle, or not. After all, 80 year olds don’t stay up that late.

I have had discussions with my web designer about the changes to the blog.  Change the name?  Not your grandmother’s 80 just does not have the same ring.  She suggested the very original name of karinquirk.com.  Sure does not roll off the tongue, does it.  I made her keep the old URL just in case.  And, of course, keep all the old posts.  (Ten years worth, remember?) so when I am stuck I can just repurpose an old one. We also had a discussion about the picture of that birthday cake picture on the front page.   I am so partial to it.  Please don’t make me too modern.

I am committed to maintaining this.  Daily? Weekly? Monthly?  Yearly? Well  more that yearly. I want to be ambitious but I want to be realistic.  So I will start out daily but don’t hold me to it.  After all, it is never too late to start again.

I am interested in your efforts to begin again.  Are you living your best life at any age?