Aging is complex and sometimes gratitude is difficult to practice. Our conversation about gratitude exposes some of the barriers to practicing gratitude as well as the opportunities. Worry, anxiety, pain and loss of function all get in the way of being grateful. Yet, there are natural, familiar ways to incorporate gratitude in our lives that can occur both spontaneously and intentionally, without feeling forced. Staying grounded in our bodies, or our faith, nature, or the present moment all help us to find our gratitude and to stop the ruminating thoughts that keep us from enjoying life. It is a lively conversation.

We begin by sharing our experiences of growing up in rural communities with extended family around and continue to reference the influence of extended family throughout the conversation. It is in exact contrast to the experience we had raising our own children and being separated from extended family by either distance or our parents’ death. We touch on genetics and how familial features and health care issues manifest. Exploring the gifts given to us by our parents, education had a huge impact. Strongly encouraged to get further education we work through the reasons for that and the consequences, as well as what influenced our career decisions. How did education change the trajectory of our lives? How did it impact the relationships with our family? We are still growing and learning and processing our early relationships forging our own path, even as we enter our seventies.

Starting with a clip from our first attempt at a podcast, we marvel at how far we have come in understanding the technology, which sets the tone for our conversation. We have seen many changes in technology in our lifetimes and the themes of adapting and learning are paramount to the discussion. How do we learn new technology? Why might we resist? What happens when technology fails, and we must trouble shoot? What are the risks of using technology? We explore many aspects of technology from how it’s used in the medical field, in car manufacturing and in academia to how it connects us to one another. The shift from analog to digital is distinct to our generation and we wonder if there is a similar shift that will occur for our grandchildren.