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.

Things we thought would inspire us in retirement, don’t and what we now find inspiring is surprising. That runs the gamut from thinking about hockey differently and ditching previous hobbies for new ones to the exploration of quantum physics and following Chris Hadfield’s observations from space. The gift of time allows us to explore our interests at length and to delve into a particular project or explore a museum for as long as we want. The pandemic had an influence on how our interests developed, with some positive things emerging despite the downsides. Pain has an impact on what inspires us, and physical, emotional and spiritual pain can wreak havoc with finding awe and inspiration. Ultimately it is our gathering together and our support of each other that lifts us out of ourselves to again feel awe.

Thoughts of death are more frequent in our seventies, and the number of years ahead of us are fewer. We are paying more attention to what we do before we die, and how we want to be remembered. We recall the division of material goods from our parents and how much we should involve our children in the task of divestment of goods. We discuss creative ways to leave a legacy.

We also discuss death based on cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker's book "The Denial of Death". The book suggests that we live in subconscious fear of our own non-existence and so search for scientific, religious and cultural responses to this fear.

The subject of death is not part of our everyday conversations, until it hits us personally. We hope it becomes easier by opening the conversation.

Spirituality can take on deeper significance in later life, becoming a vital source of meaning, comfort and resilience. It can be a very broad topic, taking in many different religious and meditative traditions. But what does it mean for us? We reflect on our lives, relationships with our families and the broader community, connecting to something outside ourselves and finding peaceful spaces. We explore how spirituality can become a search for ways to make sense of our lives and our world. We talk about activism and how taking a stand on an issue can bring spiritual moments. Spirituality can be a quest for answers to the big questions of life and when we ask those questions, we need to be ready for what we might find, or not. We end by talking about accepting the mystery of life and not settling into a comfortable life.

Food is essential to life, and we thought it was important to talk about our relationship to food now. We found ourselves remembering big family gatherings for harvest or holidays, and the wonderful food we enjoyed in our Canadian, German, English and Scandinavian traditions. We explore where some of our attitudes towards food came from and how that has shaped our eating habits today. We also discuss how our eating habits have changed as we've gotten older, impacted by health conditions, a desire to eat healthier, and through the influence of other cultures.

We converse about who takes responsibility for food preparation, food decisions and how food choices have changed since 50's. Our last thoughts were toward food security and the importance of paying attention to those who do not have enough food.

We explore nurturing - social, physical, spiritual, cognitive, emotional and familial - as we move through the space between independence and vulnerability. Once taken-for-granted routines like driving or medical checkups now demand personal advocacy and initiative. Nurturing takes effort - and raises the question, "Are we enough?".

We also reflect on how aging is shared with our children and grandchildren, and how mutual care can be renegotiated. Finally, we ask: How do we nurture ourselves as we age?