MILESTONE

September 4, 2026

Rev. Dr. Kate Winters

For those of us who haven’t had children, it is easy to lose track of the passage of time. Having not closely observed an infant become a toddler become a kindergartner become an adolescent and so on, we are not watching closely how time is changing us. We seem to somehow “remain the same.” Years go by and we are shocked by the cards wishing us a happy 50th or 60th and beyond! I did not get a happy 70th birthday card this year. Perhaps my friends were trying to shield me from the shock.

My sister, who has a grandchild now in college, has been eased (my word) into age another way, by marking the milestones of her four granddaughters. As she ages, she has so many events to celebrate with them that life changes are marked by parties (she throws a good one!) and not by added wrinkles and aching joints. She and my other dear siblings with children seem to stay young along with them. I, on the other hand, have done so by denial.

That is until the last three and a half years. Since when have I started to count in half years again? Does this trait of the very young resurface when we get old? (I fought putting a “very” in front of the old there!) All of a sudden, the half years have meaning again. I think it started at 69. I was inching toward the next birthday and wanted to drag it out as long as possible. Well, it’s a year later and I realize it doesn’t really work. Seventy and a half years old might as well be seventy-one, both somewhat alarming to me.

Between three and four years ago, I retired from full-time pastoral ministry, the first personal milestone celebrated in a long time. But unlike other benchmarks, this one felt an ending more than a beginning. Within two months, my body broke down leading to three serious surgeries, but thanks to good medical care, Joel’s love, and God’s presence, I am still here. So instead of being alarmed by the number on the birthday card, I am truly grateful.

Last week, Joel and I saw a beautiful documentary about poet Mary Oliver entitled “Saved by the World.” It brought to mind one of her most quoted lines: “Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I was reminded that life isn’t any less wild and precious at seventy than it is at ten or twenty or more. In fact, the richness of my days continues to deepen as I attend to and drink in the creation around me. Life has just as much if not more mysterious beauty in it as it had before. Perhaps this is a milestone worth celebrating. Maybe I’ll throw a party!

See less