Have you ever felt a pull towards something new but told yourself it was too late?

Maybe you've thought about learning a new skill or starting a project, or even pursuing a long held dream, but there was that little annoying voice in your head that said, that's for younger people.

That ship has sailed.

Well, think again.

You know, at 66 I started this podcast at 60.

Deirdre Wolow Nick, my guest last week took up rock climbing for the first time.

And my guest today, Becky Blue, became a first time author at 60, using her writing to spark conversations about what's possible as we age.

This episode is all about aging with curiosity, purpose and passion.

Not as abstract ideas, but as a way of living life.

Becky and I will explore what it means to approach this stage of life within an explorer's mindset, challenging old narratives and embracing what excites us.

If you've ever wondered, is it too late for me to try something new, stick around.

This episode might just change the way you see your own possibilities.

Welcome to Boomer Banter, the podcast where we have real talk about aging well.

My name is Wendy Greene and I am your host and talking about possibilities, I want to invite you to join our Boomer Banter membership.

Because when we talk about possibilities, we also have to be honest with ourselves.

So as we get older, our social circles might shrink, friends might move away and some relationships fade away, and life might even feel a little bit lonely.

But even as we are embracing aging well, we recognize that quiet worry about what aging really means.

We don't always want to talk about it because deep down we don't necessarily embrace the idea of aging, but we do talk about aging well on this show and and in Boomer Banter membership.

And that's exactly why I created the membership.

It's a warm, welcoming space where you can have real conversations, make friendships, and navigate this next chapter of aging well together.

If you go to buy me a coffee.com hey boomer0413, you too could join us.

But the best part is you can try your first month for free.

No commitment, no risk.

Just email me at wendyboomer Biz and I will get you set up.

If it's not for you, no hard feelings.

But if you love it, and I think you will, we'll welcome you into our thriving, supportive community.

But spots are limited, so.

So don't wait.

Grab your free month today.

All right.

Let me tell you about Becky Blue.

She is the author of a book titled Turning the Magic and Mystery of More Days.

She is a writer, speaker Retired geriatric nurse, community volunteer and is passionate about changing the culture of aging.

Becky has been a TEDx speaker.

She is an entertaining and inspiring keynote speaker and she uses personal stories and scientific research to explore the opportunities that a long view of life can hold.

Becky's message is there is no expiration date.

I'm living a life of health impact and wonderful.

So let's get into it.

Welcome Becky, to Boomer Banter.

Hello.

But thank you, thank you.

We're so glad to have you here.

And Becky, you became a first time author at 60.

What inspired you to take that leap and what was the biggest mindset shift you had to make?

Oh, boy.

I think what inspired me was watching my friends, my girlfriend group kind of turned 60 and I knew that I had been had a lot of things in my background that should prepare me for such a milestone because I was going to be the next one up.

And so I kind of started digging into some of my nursing literature since I had been a geriatric nurse.

And I thought, I'm just going to start writing about this.

So it was almost like I was kind of started writing some essays and then they kind of kept coming, kept coming and I thought, you know, this might be enough for a book.

But of course the mindset shift as it is with so many things is kind of that lack of self confidence or sort of that imposter syndrome is like, really, I'm going to publish a book, Is that something I can do?

So with a lot of encouragement from some colleagues and friends, I decided to go for it.

And I'm really glad I did.

Wow.

So that's a, that was a big change.

I mean, did you do much writing before you wrote the book or the essays?

Thank you for asking that.

I think at my core I've always been a writer.

I loved writing even as a young girl.

I wrote poetry and, and I loved my English classes.

My mom was an English teacher.

And then I went into nursing.

And if any of you listeners are nurses, you know that it's not especially great for your writing because you're doing everything very briefly and nowadays you're just plugging it in on a computer.

But then I was able to take a career change in my nursing career and move into a lot of grant writing.

And so that was a really great setting for getting concise, getting clear in what words I use.

And then I started writing a blog and I actually wrote a cookbook in honor of my mother in law.

Oh, how fun.

That had rather small distribution, but I do Kind of call this my first official book.

What's your first real published book?

Right.

Yeah.

And writing grants is not as much of a storytelling process, I don't think, is it?

Well, I think those are the successful grant writers who can tell a story, who can paint a picture.

Okay.

Who understand who their audience is and what matters to them.

So I think it's.

There's just a lot that goes into grant writing.

But I think the most powerful thing that goes into grant writing is understanding who your reader is.

Well, you certainly did that in your book Turning.

It was a lot about your experience, but then you certainly brought in a lot of your other stories and experiences, and you talked about an explorer's mindset.

What does that mean to you?

I think it goes back.

I love that you use the word curious previously.

And so I love to use the phrase stay clever and curious.

And as we.

Where this explorer mindset came from was on a road trip with my husband across the plains of Wyoming and realizing that, think of Lewis and Clark and how they just kind of kept following the Missouri river and let's see what curve this takes next, and who knows what's around the river bend?

And I thought that's kind of what it is with aging, is we don't know, you know, as much as we can kind of prepare for it.

We really don't know what's coming at us.

And so it's really great to have this explorer's mindset of, I'm just gonna see what's around the next bend.

And as it comes, I'm going to face it with curiosity and with questions, and I'm not going to hide.

I'm going to kind of like, back to my book, which is called, you know, Turning the Magic and Mystery of More Days, Kind of seeing what the magic and mystery can be in all these days ahead.

I love that idea, the explorer's mindset, because, you know, that certainly is something as we are approaching this stage and in this stage, you know, so many people say, I don't want to do it.

It's too late, and my time is up.

And we're like, no, you and I both are like, try it.

You know, why not?

What do you got to lose?

Try it.

Yeah.

And I think the other thing with that I love.

What do you got to lose?

Because I think as we get older, there's sort of this not such an obsession with being afraid of failing.

I think we're really kind of like, well, I'll try it and.

And see what happens if it doesn't work, I'll go on to something else.

Exactly.

I.

I love that about.

I think that's a big part of wisdom.

Right.

And I think not being afraid of failing is something our younger listeners can look forward to.

That's right.

That's right.

So at the end of each chapter, you always put in these questions that help people kind of think and process the chapter and think about what aging means to them in different areas.

What are some of the conversations you wish we were having more of around aging?

I think it's easy to have conversations about, oh, this hurts, and that.

That hurts.

And I went to the doctor and this was my lab value and all that.

And those are relevant and okay to have.

But some of the questions I love are, so what haven't we.

What haven't I done yet?

What's like waiting in the wings that I might want to try out?

And it takes some bravery to say that.

I like to share a story from when I went and visited a book club, and it was a lot of women around the table, probably 15 or 20, and they'd been meeting for, like, 15 years.

It's so cool.

And they obviously knew each other very well.

But I kind of posed this question at the end of a chapter, you know, what's waiting in the wings that you might like to try, try.

And someone answered.

They said, you know, I've always wanted to rock babies in the intensive care nursery, but I'm not sure I'd be very good at it.

And all the friends around the table, oh, my gosh, you'd be fantastic.

You need to do this, and we'll cheer you on.

And so I think having those kinds of conversations with your family and friends, you have to be rather vulnerable and really put it out there.

But then you also have this whole group of people who will keep you accountable, that they will ask you, hey, did you go to the hospital?

Did you get signed up?

Or can I go with you and.

And sign.

Sign you up and.

And help you do this?

And that's just one tiny example of the many things I've heard from my reading readers.

Yeah, I think that's important to have that.

That friend group, that supportive group of people that not only cheer you on, but, like you said, hold you accountable.

I think that that helps us get through some of our hesitation and our fear.

Do you think so?

Oh, for sure.

I think aging should not happen in.

Saw in as.

As a solo.

It's not a solo act.

Right.

It should happen in a, you know, trio or quartet.

Or choir or whatever.

You know, I think it, and I think for too long we just haven't talked about it.

It's.

Has kind of been not taboo, but maybe not fun, but I think now we can talk about it and have such great examples, have such great role models of people who are doing some amazing things in their third act of life.

And I mean, this is the time to, to try some of those things.

For sure.

Yeah, for sure.

So for.

For people that are hesitant about pursuing rocking babies in the nursery or, you know, trying to be a writer, whatever, what, what would you say to them?

Well, I.

Well, I think first you have to figure out what it is.

And I think it's okay to really go back, try to take yourself back to maybe your teenagers or your collegers or when you were.

Before you had children, like, what did you maybe want to do but never got to do?

And so think of those things and then think, well, how can I maybe kind of start small with this?

And I'll use this myself as an example.

A couple years ago I was going through this exercise and probably because I was reading my book, but I remember that when I was young, one of the things that brought me great joy was dancing, was taking ballet.

And I had gotten to take one semester of ballet when I was in college for a PE credit and I just loved it.

And then that went by the wayside because of life, of course.

But I thought of that a couple of years ago and I thought, okay, let's just try this.

So I found a YouTube channel that was like, do ballet in your kitchen or whatever, you know, and like you hold on to your kitchen island and use it as a ballet.

But it was just as perfect.

This wonderful teacher who made, you know, I could pull her up any morning and, and watch her and do it with her.

So I did that for like six months.

And I figured out that I saw a posting on social media that the one of the local ballet studios called Dance Gallery.

And it happened to be the same, same studio that I took that class from 40 years prior in college.

They were starting to offer adult ballet lessons.

So I thought, okay, this is perfect.

Meant to be, meant to be.

So I started taking ballet and it's been absolutely life giving and it's been such a joy.

I.

My.

One of my purposes was to improve my balance and my strength, which I would say it has.

But I also just wanted to experience the music and the sights and sounds of that studio environment and to the point where I even got to be a part a We part of.

Of the Nutcracker a couple Christmases ago.

So, you know, I guess to your question, it's first dig back in.

Be a little bit of an archaeologist.

Dig back in your soul, see what's waiting back there, and then to just start small.

Yeah.

And if.

If it doesn't work out, then dig again and find something different.

Yeah.

That was brilliant.

Like, you tried with the YouTube, so you had to see first.

Can I still do it?

Would I be brave enough to get in front of people to do.

I mean, that was great.

What a great way to start.

Yeah.

So I have a recital coming up at the end of May.

I'm already stressing about that.

And one of the costumes involves boas.

And I'm like, oh, my gosh.

Pretty sure I'm gonna, you know, slip on it and break a hip on stage.

So you can pray for me about that.

No, no, you got to change that image.

You're gonna do great.

You're gonna whirl around and thank you, Wendy.

I mean, even me, you know, who writes, I can still get those negatives?

We do it to ourselves all the time, don't we?

Everybody does.

Yeah.

Yes.

And then we stop.

Like, okay.

And then we stop.

Yes.

I need to take just a break for just a minute and show my appreciation to Greenwood Capital as a sponsor of Boomer Banter.

And one thing I appreciate about Greenwood Capital and my advisor, Melissa Bain, is her approach to financial planning.

She makes sure that my accounts at Greenwood Capital work towards my goals and match my purpose, which is awesome.

As an independent registered advisory firm, Greenwood Capital is a fiduciary.

They must place your interests above their own.

And.

And I have to tell you that as a sponsor, Greenwood Capital has compensated my business for this testimonial.

For more information about how they can help you make a financial plan, go to greenwoodcapital.com let's get back to Becky.

So, Becky, when I read your book, I realized that, I mean, we were actually talking about this before it came on air that you wrote your book.

When the pandemic started.

I started this show when the pandemic started.

And then also you said your husband had retired right around that same time also.

So there was a lot of transition going on during that period.

And that's five years now.

So I'm wondering in the ensuing five years if there's other things that you would have added to your book or changed about what you said now that you are five years older and wiser.

Well, in regards to my husband, I think I I mean, that was totally in real time.

As I was writing this book, he was asked to retire, as maybe some of our age were during COVID So he wasn't expecting it at all.

So I think I titled that chapter let yourself be surprised.

So.

And then I joke about, you know, I.

I think there's that old saying about, I married you for better and for worse, but not for lunch.

You know, all of a sudden he was home and trying to find meaningful things to do.

But kind of the rest of the story there was.

He ended up finding an amazing work opportunity, which was halftime.

And so he.

He went back to work.

And for him, that was the right answer.

But I think I, maybe now would be able to even give more background into what can retirement be?

And I just ran into a friend the other night, a dentist who had retired, and he said, I don't call it retirement.

I call it repurposement.

And I like that.

I haven't heard that.

I like that.

You know, I think we've heard a lot of things about what you can call retirement, but I like that, that repurposement.

So I would say that my husband now is finding a lot of meaning in his work and really using his past experience, which is as far as other things I would have added to my book, because in these past couple of years, my husband and I have ended up in a caregiving journey with his family.

And I think you and I have talked about this a little bit before, related to caring for your mom.

And so I feel like now I really can empathize and talk much more about that caregiving journey, even though I used to teach about it all the time when I was a geriatric nurse specialist.

It's the kind of.

Kind of thing you don't even.

You can't even appear to know what it's like until you've actually been in the trenches and done it.

It's so true.

It's so true.

You know, we.

I mean, I've talked about it, too.

I've had people on the show talk about it, but until it became real, from.

From my perspective, too, it's.

It's emotionally a roller coaster in a lot of ways.

Yeah.

So in your next edition, you can.

Yeah, new edition.

Stay tuned.

So you had this chapter that was titled where did you learn to age?

I love that.

So tell me about where you learned to age.

Yes, I would say I learned to age when I was very young, and it was because of our setting.

I was growing up on a farm in a small Community.

My grandparents were nearby.

My other set of grandparents were, you know, a Sunday afternoon drive up the road.

So I just had the benefit of really being surrounded by older adults, which I really kind of worry about now for this, the young children.

I feel like a lot of ways, we've gotten kind of scattered, and we don't necessarily, necessarily have all those intergenerational opportunities.

So I think people need to be more intentional about that as parents and having their children have adopted grandparents or whatever, if you can't be with yours regularly.

So I would say it started with spending a lot of time with older adults as I was growing up.

And then, of course, you kind of get negative role models and you get positive role models.

But I would say overall, there was just.

Just a real love for older adults.

And I was always the one who kind of wanted to hang out at the kitchen table a little bit longer while all the kids went out and played.

But I wanted to stay and hear more of the stories.

And so I think, you know, for certain ones of us, I think there is a pull towards that age group.

And I know I certainly found that in my nursing practice as well.

Sure, sure.

But I think it's a wonderful exercise.

And when you talk about things we should be talking about, and that can be fun.

Coffee chat, you know, where'd you learn how to age?

Who taught you right.

And who are your role models for aging?

You know, there was just a question that came up in my newsfeed today about who are your role models for aging?

And, you know, as we become role models for aging, also, it becomes even a more interesting question.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And it doesn't have to be someone in your family, you know, I think you can.

I find myself just always watching other people and seeing how they engage.

And my church happens to be a great place to see lots of different people of different ages, of course, but even out in the community.

And the thing I always look for is who are those people who want to be relevant, who want to be curious.

It might even be in how they.

How they dress, how they carry themselves.

And then in conversation, are they curious about the other person rather than talking about themselves?

And that's a great barometer or a great role model for aging is ask, tell me what you've been up to.

Even if you're talking to somebody who's 15 years old, you know, just, you know, what's your story?

What are you up to these days?

Just to be open to other people's stories.

Yeah.

And I think you're Right.

The curiosity.

You know, we're so.

Particularly the younger generation.

It's.

It's text this and text that, you know, so you have very short conversations.

So staying curious, who, who inspires you.

How did you learn curiosity?

Or is it always just part of you?

Yeah, I think I've always been fairly curious.

My dad used to have us saying, what master of what was it?

Now?

I can't think of how he said it, but kind of like he was, yes, curious of all things, but master of none or whatever.

And so my father was always very curious.

And then I think of a nurse mentor, one of my nursing professors who just turned 90.

And I watched her go through her life and her nursing career and really reach out to so many different populations of people, to people who are out in the community, maybe healthcare, in children, in the schools.

But she was also like a really early adopter of tech, which I think is really impressive for somebody who's 90 years old.

She said, oh, just, you know, when email was just starting and I was probably still getting paper memos from the hospital, she's like, oh, just email me.

You know, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, you figured out emailing.

You're almost 30 years older than me.

You know, that's going to date me here.

Of course, with, with your audience.

Yeah, I, I just, I probably value curiosity and courage.

I guess that would be the other C word in myself and in my children.

Something I've tried to, to teach them, certainly.

Yeah, I can definitely see that in you.

I wanted to talk about self care because you talk about that in your book.

And certainly you encouraged your patients, your clients, you know, into caring for themselves as they could.

But I also wanted to quote something that you're.

I think it was your grandmother that said it's better to wear out than to rust out.

Thanks for saying that.

Yeah, Grandma Marie isn't that good?

That's a great statement.

To rust out.

And all of the cousins and everybody.

We still recall that.

And, and she did that.

You know, she was a hard worker.

And again, she, she didn't just sit around.

She loved to, to stay busy.

So I think anytime we were maybe kind of mopey or complaining about having to do some chores or having to do some work, that's what she would come up with.

I think we can all benefit from reminding ourselves of that today.

It's better to wear out than to rust out.

And as far as self care, I think where I really learned that was when I started working in Faith Community Nursing, where we put nurses into churches.

And we started.

We really focus on looking at people in body, mind and spirit.

That they're kind of three parts of the whole and just the importance of taking care of each of those parts.

And when we think about aging, I think it's easy to focus on our bodies and how they are changing, of course, and sometimes not being the friendliest towards us.

I woke up this morning, I thought, why do my legs hurt?

I just want to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom.

I was like, oh, so your body will give you some aches and give you some signs.

So, you know, of course that implies, well, let's do a little stretching maybe even before we get out of bed.

So there's some self care right there.

But so the body, it's a little more obvious what we do there for self care and the mind.

I say that my ballet is equivalent to my husband doing wordle.

You know, I think I've got to kind of memorize some steps and things like that.

So we do things to keep our mind sharp.

So that's self care of the mind.

But the one that I think we don't think enough about is spirit and how do we care for our spirit?

Depending on your faith tradition, you know, how you take in that higher being.

But I.

I think it's so important to.

To feed your spirit.

And just recently I've come across the concept of spiritual electricity.

Oh, I haven't heard that.

Yeah, and it's from a wonderful book called the Artist's Way.

And she talks the importance of spiritual.

Of spiritual electricity.

And what that is is where you kind of cut out the cobwebs enough in your life and in the messages that are coming in and maybe being in some silence and letting kind of your senses feed you, but you know, all the five senses, or maybe it's from when you are doing something you really love or you get to have a conversation with an old friend.

You get that energy.

Right.

And that's.

I would.

She calls it a spiritual energy or being creative when suddenly you've made a new recipe or you've decided, I'm going to write in my journal this morning, that feeling that you get because of those rather simple but powerful activities is that spiritual energy.

So that's kind of what I'm looking at now related to self care.

I've been much more intentional about opening up my journal every morning and reading something from a favorite book or a scripture and letting myself get energized in that way.

I think Intention.

Intention is so important, Becky.

You know, I've.

I've journaled all my life, but on and off, right?

And, yeah, absolutely.

I set myself an intention a couple weeks ago that I was going to journal in the morning before I pick up my phone and start checking all the mail and messages and stuff, because that just clouds your thinking.

But you know what I found also, and I want to ask you about this.

This morning, for the first time in a while, I woke up without this neck pain and headache, and I felt so much more awake and alert and ready to write in my journal.

You know, pain really stops us in a lot of ways.

Mentally, spiritually, physically.

And you worked with a lot of geriatric patients.

I mean, how did you help them?

Kind of put that in perspective as we're trying to be intentional.

That's good.

I mean, pain is.

I don't expect.

I don't.

I'm not an expert in pain, but certainly pain can be in body, mind, and spirit as well.

So I always say, you know, you've got to kind of keep the main things.

The main things, you know, make sure that you're taking care of your body in whatever way you can.

And sometimes even speaking, the pain really helps.

So if you share that with someone, saying, this is what I'm feeling.

But I think that when I worked with my geriatric clients so often, it wasn't always a medicinal kind of cure that we needed for them.

Sometimes it was.

But I had the pleasure of working with other interdisciplinary folks, like a physical therapist and pharmacists, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist.

I mean, sometimes it's as simple as just, let's get you a new chair, you know?

You know, you're just not sitting right.

And so just know that there's so many options beyond grabbing a pill.

The appeal, the easiest, I mean.

Right.

So I think, again, it's speaking the pain, letting people know that this is what I'm dealing with.

And what's.

What's the best thing for me and.

Asking for help and doing some movement and all of those things, I think.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, movement is a given.

I mean, I think if you're gonna think of one thing to do to.

To age healthier is just move and move all the time.

Yeah, I know.

We got to keep moving.

We don't want that rust to build up on us.

Yeah, right.

So another thing that you talked about in the book was sleep, how important that is for us.

And so many people I know, as we pass midlife, we get a Lot of interrupted sleep and then people wake up tired.

So what do you recommend to improve sleep?

For me, I think first it's assessing, you know, where is the barrier to great sleep or is it really just kind of, it's typical to have this interrupted sleep as you mentioned, as we age.

So what I would always do this night with my clients, rather than asking them, how did you sleep last night?

I would ask, did you feel rested when you woke up in the morning?

Ah, okay.

So I think that's a really better question to ask.

And I love that you had a great sleep last night.

You woke up and you felt, felt great.

I love that.

So then you kind of to dial back and see, well, what did I do differently last night?

And I, and I'm, you know, dealing with this in real time too.

And I'm 65 and I would say that on those nights that I eat closer to bedtime or have a sweet treat or a chocolatey dessert, those are the nights I don't sleep as well and, or the nights that I'm, you know, looking at my screen.

But, and I will say for sure that the days that I exercise are the nights that I am so much better and I have taken up swimming and so I've been swimming in the mornings and I feel like that's made a big difference for me.

But I also know that everyone is different, everyone is an individual.

So we have to be willing to try some different things.

But again, speaking that difficulty that you're having with sleep, either speaking it to your healthcare professional but just speaking it to your friends, because everybody's going through this, right.

Or if you have a sister or a brother, you might share some of your same DNA, might have some same impact.

But overall I would say that sleep is just a non negotiable.

You've got to get that in and so to not wait too long to deal with it.

Yeah, yeah.

Because I mean, everything I read about it is, you know, all this healing of your brain or restructuring or whatever it is that's happening up there happens when you sleep.

So yeah.

And you know, we're in an age where we've lived with technology for a long time.

If you have one of the, some kind of a feedback mechanism, maybe it's an aura ring or we got a new bed and our new bed comes with an app and it actually measures my sleep.

So I mean, it's crazy what's out there to give you feedback on how you're sleeping and it's worth looking at those options or of course, you know, the simple thing again is just going back to your pen is when you wake up in the morning, kind of log it, you know, kind of keep a journal of what did I do last night?

Or what did I do yesterday that made me sleep better today?

Or the converse, what did I do last night or yesterday that maybe sleep awful.

So a lot of what you're talking about is.

Is self awareness, right?

Like, speak the pain, speak the problem of sleeping, speak, you know, these kinds of things, these fears.

I.

I heard from a friend today who told me about a pattern for crocheting a blanket, a mood blanket.

Oh, wow.

I know.

So all these different colors were associated with what you're feeling that day as you're doing your work.

I know.

How cool is that?

So, I mean, that's an awareness thing, too.

So whatever we can do to raise our awareness of.

Of what we're feeling, thinking our thoughts, create our beliefs and our actions and our, you know, all of that.

So.

Yeah.

So what are you doing?

I know you talked about ballet and swimming, and.

So are there new things that you are seeing on the horizon that you want to take on for your explorer mindset?

Oh, gosh.

Well, I kind of feel.

On a road trip.

I think that would be great.

So I haven't.

We haven't got that set out yet, but I always encourage people to just even look what's right outside your.

Your door.

There's some new restaurants in town that I'd like to try.

You know, sometimes it can just be that simple.

And I always like to tell people, I mean, one piece of advice I have every day, just do something new again.

One of my favorite stories is from a book club where a woman shared.

Yeah, I have a group of six of us, and we go out together every Wednesday, but we've made a pact that we don't ever do the same thing twice.

Wow.

Isn't that a great idea?

So every Wednesday, they have to think of something new to do.

Oh, my God.

And so she shared with the group that this past week or whenever it was, that we all put on our snow clothes and we went tubing at the local ski hill.

Can you just imagine?

I mean, what a fun idea.

And so the kicker of that, though, was I said, okay, who did you tell about this?

And she kind of goes, you know, she wasn't real specific, but I.

I made that as an example of.

Okay, it'd be great if you post pictures on Facebook or make sure you tell the kids in your life that you and your Six sixty something girlfriend took a Wednesday afternoon and went tubing at the local ski hill.

So that kind of gets back to My purpose in life right now is to change the culture of aging.

Yeah.

And that we know that we change the culture of aging by either doing story worthy things that we can tell others about.

For example, I love that this platform gave me a chance to tell people about my ballet.

Hopefully that changed the culture of aging a little bit.

Or the other thing you have to do is find story worthy things that other people are doing and tell those stories.

Which is your whole podcast, Right?

Yeah.

So little by little, if we're all talking about aging, either our own or what we've learned from somebody else will change the culture of aging.

I love that Becky, and I love that you said it doesn't have to be big things.

Going to a new restaurant is, you know, that's a new adventure.

So, yeah, thank you.

Thank you for all of this.

I want to let people know how they can find you.

You have a website that's called Becky Blue Writes W R I t e s beckyblue writes.com and from there you can find your book, which you can also find on Amazon and it's called Turning the Magic and Mystery of More Days.

And you can also contact Becky through there.

She's also on Facebook as Becky Blue and you can follow her on Instagram.

That is Becky J.

Blue on Instagram.

So follow Becky.

Follow Becky and watch her new adventures as she keeps moving forward.

Let's see.

I also want to remind you about the Boomer Banter membership being a warm, welcoming space where real conversations happen, friendships form, and we navigate the next chapter together.

So if you'd like to try a month for free, you can email me@wendyboomer.biz and next week, next week's kind of interesting.

I'm going to be participating in something called Podcast thon.

It's a global movement where podcasters come together to spotlight important non profit causes.

And for my podcast thon special, I'll be featuring Doris McLallan, who is president of the American association of University Women.

AAUW in South Carolina will be talking about AAUW's mission to advance equity for women in education and the workplace, why this work is still so important today, and how being part of AAUW for over 40 years has given Doris a deep sense of purpose.

So I can't wait to share this conversation with you.

Be sure to subscribe, follow and tune in to Boomer Banter next week for that episode and one final thing.

Before I go, I wanted to mention my friend Adrienne Berg, who has the podcast Ageless Traveler.

It's a podcast on a mission that you will never stop traveling, and she brings you useful information on trips, tips and hacks for lifelong travel.

Breaks down barriers to solo, intergenerational and traveling at slower paces.

So check her out.

It's agelesstraveler.com for access to a lifetime of travel.

And thank you to Greenwood Capital for sponsoring this podcast.

Greenwood Capital is an independent registered advisory firm providing wealth management, investment solutions, and financial planning to claim clients in 23 states.

Thank you so much Becky.

And thank all of you for sharing your time with Boomer Banter.

Thank you Wendy.

It was fun.

Thank you.