Hi friends, current and new. I’m Catherine Greer, author and copywriter, and I’m up early with a coffee writing to you before anyone else gets out of bed—including the dog. I feel like I’m having a mini-holiday and I’m trying to be extra quiet so I glean a few peaceful minutes alone. (I love my own company. Do you?)

I’ve been working on my new novel, and copyedits are due this week. In THE BITTERSWEET BAKERY CAFE, the main character grapples with the fallout from her own ageing. It’s a funny book, but also true. And yesterday I was writing about why the world expects that we’ll wither away in the second half of our lives.

We’re no longer young and beautiful. We’re experienced and beautiful.

Some things are harder, but a whole lot of things are actually easier. Things like this:

• Knowing what really matters to us.

• Being patient.

• Understanding how and when to forgive — especially when to forgive ourselves.

Growing older makes me think of the past. It is far too easy to mull over our mistakes. And then I realised this.

Whatever we did or failed to do, whatever happened then, and how it happened…it might as well have been 800 years ago.

We can’t go back.

We can’t choose differently.

So why not just let it go? Let it drift down like a piece of white paper we’ve dropped from our hand…because that was then, and this is now.

We grow older. We grow smarter, too. And through it all we balance the hopes and disappointments that come with a life fully lived.

This is loving our age, right? Loving the fact that we’ve lived and are living—that we have today, and now, and the opportunity to enjoy what life is offering us: fresh air, fresh chances.

We can let things go, and move on.

I hope you have the most beautiful Sunday, filled with tiny moments of appreciation, love from unexpected places, and a whole day of rest and peace.

Love Catherine x

P.S. The Fun Stuff!

• Happy Father’s Day in Australia! This guy’s the best.

• School’s starting back in North America—and have you seen this beautiful idea? Wow.

• Reporting back on Moo Goo from last week. I tried and love the face moisturiser. My favourite products are the face cleanser and body cream. Has anyone tried the hair care?

• I made these blueberry muffins for my son’s early morning drive to the snow for his snowboarding trip and they were so good.

• Driving back from the beach last week, I found this 70s Road Trip playlist that I loved. I was young in the 70s, but I had so many older siblings so I remember all the music. What about this one? Time to kitchen dance…