Have you ever had a dream that, upon waking, was so strongly imprinted upon you, that months later it was impacting your thoughts and life? Some people believe that such dreams represent God talking to us.

My whole idea of living my best life came from such a dream. And, yes, it may have been God talking to me as I haven’t been able to let go of the concept. As I have shared my thoughts with others, they, too, have embraced this direction.

The Dream

My dream was sometime in 2022. I didn’t record the date as, at the time, I was unaware of what it might morph into. The dream was about my mother, leading Christian female speaker Florence Littauer. Like most dreams, I do not remember all the details, but she was in heaven. I clearly recognized that she was my mother—though she was not the elderly woman I cared for in her last couple years of life. Nor was she the larger-than-life stage presence many people remember her as. It is hard to describe, but I was left feeling that the person in my dream was my mother at her “best life.” Though I have no biblical backing for this, I woke up thinking that when we are in heaven, the person we will be will not be us as teenagers or elderly folks in our last days, but whoever we were when we were at our best. Then I had an epiphany: when I am in heaven, I want to be who I am now—because I am living my best life! This me—the sixty-four-year-old remodeling contractor living in Lubbock, Texas, married to Chuck Tedder. The one who has lots of girlfriends who enrich my life. The Marita who is living a life she never planned for or expected—a life that is so different from who I was for most of my adult life. The reinvented Marita. Not the semi-famous author of 20 books who regularly stood on the stage in front of hundreds of people and occasionally thousands. Not the TV and radio talk show guest. Not the leader of Christian women.

Best-Life focus

I began to incorporate the “living my best life” focus into my conversations and my Facebook posts. When asked: “How are you?” I surprised grocery store clerks and food servers, just to name a few, by saying: “I’m living my best life”—though I couldn’t really articulate exactly what that was or meant. I just knew it to be true.

Enter Ms Senior America

A few months after my dream, in late October 2022, I got a call from Debbie Robbins. I knew her from my Christian speaker/writer life and, through Facebook, we’d stayed in touch. During the waning days of my mother’s life, Debbie even helped me with the verbiage for the new website I was creating to carry on my mother’s legacy: ThePersonalities.com. Debbie called me to tell me she’d just been crowned Ms. Senior America. She said God had given her a platform and she felt she needed to do something with it. She asked for my advice. Should she write a book? I discouraged the book idea as by the time it was written and published, her reign would be over. I encouraged a blog and told her about my dream. We both got excited about the idea of encouraging senior women to live their best life! The brainstorming was fast and furious. This is the first thing in the Christian/personal growth arena that excited me in nearly twenty years. We hung up from the call and did nothing about it. Life went on.

My Sister Came Onboard

In early November, I enjoyed a Hawaiian vacation with my sister: Lauren Littauer Briggs—the first we’d ever taken together. As we got reacquainted, I told her about my best-life dream and realization and my conversation with Debbie, about the potential for a blog—maybe a podcast and/or YouTube channel. Lauren, too, embraced the idea—so much so that she quickly reached out to her son and had him purchase the domain name “LivingYourBestLife60Plus.com”.

We Teamed Up

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Lauren, Debbie, and I had a conference call about the potential project. We were reinvigorated that we needed to do something with “living your best life.” Then Christmas got in the way.

More Encouragement

In early January, my friend Patti came to visit from Albuquerque—where I used to live. During the few days she was here, we had many discussions. One was about her sister who had moved to a new town and didn’t have any friends. Patti asked how I’d developed such a great group of girlfriends in my new hometown of Lubbock. We talked. I realized what I shared with her was really a blog post! I told her about my best-life dream.

Next, I reached out to the web designer with whom I’d Zoomed in early December. And here we are.

The Best-Life Project is Born

We don’t know where this is going, but we invite you to follow along! We want to address a variety of topics relevant to those of us women who are over 60—living in the sweet spot of life where we have the intersection of health, time, and resources. We plan to involve others from our Christian speaker/writer network. Please sign up to receive updates and follow our Facebook page.