It just feels right that I’m working on my first blog post while sitting on the beach. (And yes, I know how lucky and blessed I am to live three miles from the ocean.) How I ended up living back in the beach town where I lived as a teenager is just one of the many stories I’ll share with you as part of “My Presence Journey” and it has God written all over it!
I’ll definitely share what led to me deciding to create a blog website in my sixties! Single again with a small jewelry design business as my main source of income. Retirement you wonder? Nope, not for this Gypsy Artist girl – at least no time soon.
When I was a young Mom raising three children under the age of six, I would never have imagined that I would have been married and divorced two times by the age of sixty! Crazy! But isn’t life that way for a lot of 50+ women who like me decide to (and are lucky enough to have that option) take a break from a job or career they love in order to stay home while their children are young.
Then before you know it two decades have passed and you find yourself divorced from the person you thought you’d grow old with, and who would love you forever. Bad choices (unfaithfulness), growing apart, selfishness, emotional abuse, or a midlife crisis are just a few reasons why a 20+ year marriage might end.
Thirty years ago, after my first divorce, I found myself a single Mom of three (18 months, three and six years old). I remember looking for “Christian” books written by women like myself who had dealt with a husband’s infidelity and going through a separation or divorce. And there just wasn’t a lot out there.
Flash forward to 2026 with the internet, podcasts, social media and more, there’s almost too much information out there! So, when I sensed that God (or the Spirit) wanted me to “Tell my story” and help other women, the idea to create a blog website seemed like a good platform.
I earned a degree in Journalism & Advertising at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC before marriage and having kids, but never really used the journalism degree, choosing instead to work in radio and television advertising sales. So, here I am forty years later finally getting back to writing.
That’s the short version of why I’m sitting on the beach writing a rough draft of my first blog post. Later, I might research “How to Write a Blog, What Not To Do, etc. But for now I’m just going to jump in and learn as I go. (Of course, I do have help from a “ghost writer” the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost as some Christians call the Spirit ; )
I’ll be writing about “My Presence Journey” – which started off with the name of my little art business “Presence” – then later when I had switched to only designing and creating hammered jewelry it became “Presence Jewelry Designs” with the verse “In his presence is fullness of joy.” (Psalm 16:11) as a reminder of what’s most important in my life – living in God’s presence, faith, family and friends.
The idea for “My Presence Journey” is to hopefully encourage women who find themselves, or a close friend, going through a big life change and single again in their fifties or sixties. As well as sharing what goes on “behind the scenes” in the life of an artist. And funny or interesting stories from other women in the fourth quarter of their lives. I hope you’ll come by often to see what’s new in the journey, and hopefully be encouraged or even entertained. Because your life is far from over if you too find yourself single again at sixty!
