Let’s learn from the Olive Tree…

to keep our roots deep, embrace our uniqueness & celebrate our age!

I turned 60 in 2024 and asked for an olive tree for my birthday.  South Carolina’s weather is similar to the Mediterranean for most of the year.  She grew beautifully last year, and we are hopeful she will flourish again in the spring with the shelter we provided her this winter.  2024-2025 has been an incredibly cold winter in the southern part of the United States. 

I have had the good fortune to be able to step away from my professional career and explore retirement.  This has allowed me to spend more quality time with family and friends, volunteer, focus on self-care, and engage more deeply with my community.  It’s been an incredible journey so far and allowed me to connect with many amazing women around my age and older...

One evening, while at a yoga class, our instructor shared it was her 73rd birthday and read us a mantra about embracing our age as we get older.  I spent some quiet time reflecting on all of the women I came in contact with earlier in the week.  I was thinking how inspirational many of them were to me... but they did not see themselves in that same light.  Many of them were down on themselves...because of their weight, or their age, or a medical or family challenge they were facing.  Toward the end of class, I was thinking about the olive tree and how it gets better with age.

That is when “OliveMe” came to me… and I began this amazing journey!