Today, I’m 60.
Even typing that feels a little surreal.
For most of my life, birthdays have simply marked another year. This one feels different. Not heavier, exactly. More like a marker in the sand.
A chance to look back at where I’ve been, but even more importantly, to look ahead.
Last week, I shared the story of the bucket list I was asked to write when I was 12. I hated the idea. Even then, I was superstitious about putting everything I wanted to do in one neat little list, as if life could somehow be checked off one experience at a time.
Turns out, I still don’t want a bucket list.
But I do want to keep saying yes.
Yes to seeing places I haven’t seen yet.
Yes to trying things that scare me a little.
Yes to making more art.
Yes to building something of my own.
Yes to long walks by the water, oysters for lunch, spontaneous beach trips, beautiful things, supporting other artists, good conversations and whatever else happens to find me along the way.
That’s where Sixty + Saltwater begins.
It isn’t a list of 60 things I have to accomplish before my next birthday. And it definitely isn’t about suddenly reinventing myself because I’ve reached some magical number.
In some ways, the reinvention has already happened.
At 58, I moved to Wilmington. I started building Marie & Oakley in earnest. I returned to painting. I traded a corporate career and calendars full of meetings for a studio, paint-covered hands, markets, road trips and the uncertainty of figuring out what comes next.
And somehow, I feel more like myself than I have in a very long time.
So maybe 60 isn’t about starting over.
Maybe it’s about finally paying attention to the things that have been calling you all along.
Sixty + Saltwater will be a collection of those things.
Places I go. Things I make. People I meet. Things I try. Lessons I’m still learning. Clothes I love. Art that inspires me. Days on the water. Stories from the studio. Maybe a few adventures I never would have imagined at 12.
Some will be big.
Some will be wonderfully ordinary.
Because I’m beginning to think a good life isn’t really built from checking off the biggest experiences.
It’s built from collecting moments.
And at 60, I’m nowhere near finished collecting mine.
Here’s to whatever washes ashore next.
Much love from the coast,
Tracy
Sixty + Saltwater is an ongoing Journal series about creativity, coastal living, starting something new and collecting a life along the way.
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