Last night I got home from book club, walked the dog, put my jammies on and hopped in bed to read a little and watch some housewives yell at each other! Regular night: quiet, enjoyable, alone. The way my bedtimes have been for nearly four years since I left my husband.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I cried every night for about the first year. I just couldn’t believe that my life was taking this twist, although looking back, there had never been any other way for it to end. It was, of course, destined to come to an end.

I have become more and more accustomed to my life as a single woman over sixty. It was a slow process, but I slowly had fewer nights in tears and began to have some positive moments. Bedtime, however, was always the dreaded misery hour: when I was faced with thinking about where I was in my life, missing my family, missing being a married mother of three, missing the life that I had planned for myself and my children. Every night I prayed the same prayer, to anyone who was listening, “Please take this man off my mind, out of my heart and out of my life.”

Fast forward to the present and my prayers were answered. It took a long time for me to know that I could do it, I could be single and over sixty. And, it took even longer for me to get to the point where I knew my life would be better. I just couldn’t see it for so long.

So, here is my new normal. I am happy and healthy. My life is probably the best it has been, ever, with the exception of every minute spent with my children. And, they now know me as the woman I was meant to be, a happy woman, a woman they had never known before.

What does your new normal look like? Are you happy with it or does it need some tweaking? Make it a life you can be proud of!