With another year around the sun, I have to come to terms with getting older. I only have experience being the woman that I have been up to yesterday. How to I become a woman I haven’t been yet?

I have to think about what kind of older woman I want to be. What is it I hope to arrive at?

One thing I’ve noticed about women who have experienced more life…is that the right phrase? I think it covers what I’m trying to get to. These older women know what they like.

In my twenties, in a new job, I noticed that the boss’s secretary..ahem…Administrative assistant..was a woman who appeared to have influence in what happened in that department. I invited her to have lunch to learn what she knew, and we went out to a nearby restaurant. She was so comfortable in this environment. She knew exactly what she wanted.

Sitting at the table like it had been made for her, she placed her order. She let that waiter know how it needed to happen. Some things were dry; other things were on the side. I watched her lift her chin and make all her preferences known—so confident her wishes would be granted.

I didn’t know you could do that. I placed by order like an amateur.

We chatted and ate our salads. She asked the right questions, ones I hadn’t thought of yet. And when we were done, she opened her purse and applied her lipstick while gazing into a compact mirror.

I had to break off my own piece of that elegance. I fumbled in my purse to find the tools.

Once I noticed this creature in the wild, I saw them more. The ladies who know how to have a little heater at their feet. All the things that make life comfortable can be assembled and arranged to best effect.

This lady builds a nest where ever she goes. Sometimes she will share the comfort bubble with people around.

I could slip into being that kind of creature, I think. I could enjoy that—being a lady who can get the comforts gathered up around her. The future is uncertain but it is comforting to picture myself as a comfortable, confident woman who can ask people nicely for exactly what she wants. And get it! More times that not.

Happy new year to you all. I hope it will be full of comfortable things.