Episode #167: Season 6 Finale: Reflecting on 2023, Unveiling 2024 Plans, Crafting your Word for the Year

"Hey, Boomer!" invites you to join host Wendy Green in the Season Finale as she reflects on the best of 2023, unveils exciting changes for 2024, and shares her word for the year ahead. Wendy delves into the importance of navigating family dynamics, embracing reinvention, and exploring the transformative power of choosing a word for the year. The episode concludes with a heartwarming holiday message and an invitation for listeners to be part of the upcoming Boomer Believer group and join in upcoming events and discussions.

Episode Overview:

In the Season Finale of "Hey, Boomer!", Wendy Green celebrates the show's accomplishments in 2023. She reflects on the creatives who joined the show, Sky Bergman, Melissa Davey and Penny Peyser, for example.

There was discussion about the show on Parent/Child Estrangement and some of the lessons learned from her guest, Dr. Joshua Coleman.

Wendy reminisced about some of the authors who were guests on Hey, Boomer, and she shares some of the life lessons learned from Morrie Schwartz as detailed in the book "The Wisdom of Morrie."

She unveils the upcoming themes for 2024 including a focus on Family Dynamics and Communication in January.

Wendy also shares her word for 2024, "confidence," and discusses her areas of focus for the year ahead.

The episode concludes with an invitation for listeners to engage with guests by joining the Boomer Believer group.

Episode Takeaways:

• Embrace reinvention and creativity at any age. It is never too late to explore new passions and talents.
• Age joyfully and with purpose.
• The transformative impact of choosing a word for the year and its role in personal growth

Call to Actions:

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We've decluttered our homes, and we've navigated delicate family dynamics. We've laughed with creatives who find joy in every facet of life, and we've explored how to live with intention and purpose. We've spoken to authors about their books that covered many different genres, And we talked about health and transition and purpose So let's dive in and celebrate the meaningful lessons shared By our inspiring guests. We've had many creatives on the show this year. Do you remember Skye Bergman? She shared the story of creating the documentary Lives Well Lived. If you haven't seen it yet, You can probably find it on most PBS stations. And in this documentary, she captured the stories of older adults Living full and meaningful lives. It started with a story about her grandmother and all that she was learning from her grandmother.

And then we learned valuable lessons from all the individuals she profiled in this documentary. They talked about living purposeful lives, lives that focused on connection between generations, self care and mindfulness, And the importance of having some sense of passion about the life that you're living and continuing to learn no matter how old you are. If you happened to miss that episode, you can find it on any of the podcast apps that you use. Look for the title under Hey, Boomer!, Lives Well Lived. I know you're gonna love that episode. And then we spoke to Melissa Davey, and she told us about leaving her corporate career at 65 To follow her passion to become a documentary filmmaker. It was an amazing story because Melissa really had no experience in Making films before. But, however, a a chance encounter with M. Night Shyamalan, Which is a story in itself that you'll hear on the show.

And most recently, we spoke to Penny Peyser. Remember Penny? She infused humor and heart into her conversations about aging and reinvention. Penny had been an actress who kind of aged out in Hollywood of being offered, good female roles. So like Melissa, she reminded us that it is never too late to explore new parts of our creativity. And Penny wrote a book called Sonnets from Suburbia. And she spins sonnets and does kind of rap Poetry with them, and she has created a 1 woman show that shows her alter ego, Lady Penelope. And Penny writes you know, so we think about sonnets as like Shakespearean. Right? They're old and very formal.

Well, Penny follows the the iambic pentameter of a sonnet, but she writes about common everyday things like Internet trials, or some of the challenges we have in our personal relationships. So that was a fun episode too. Go look for Sonnets from Suburbia with Penny Peyser. And the stories these ladies shared reminded us that humor is a powerful balm for life's pains, That creativity instills us with energy to explore new directions, and that reinvention has no age limit.

In a more sobering episode, we addressed the silent hurts of family life with Doctor Joshua Coleman. He spoke to us about parent child estrangement. He shared his insights into the modern biases of mental health professionals who sometimes Create or maybe exacerbate some of the challenges that adult children are having with their parents And vice versa. And we talked about the increasing rates of family estrangement.

Look for Hey,Boomer!, And then look up Resolving Estrangement. On a more practical note, Nikki Davidson Jones taught us the value of decluttering our living spaces. I know we kind of Played with that for a month or so after that episode to share with each other how we were decluttering on our Facebook group, Hey, Boomer! -What's Next? And hopefully, you all are still on that journey. But Nikki talked about decluttering our living spaces not just for the peace of mind but as a loving gesture for those who we leave behind. And her approach is both practical and profound, Encouraging us to make our homes and lives ready for what's ahead. We called this episode The Generational Gift of the Uncluttered Home, and it truly is a generational gift. From clearing out rooms that have become time capsules of our children's past, And I, gave as a birthday present to my son this past year, a lot of the old papers from his past that I had been saving and collecting.

All of these books I really enjoyed. So, you know, I get the benefit of reading all of them before we, talk to these authors. So that's always fun. And one of the most popular shows was Rob Schwartz's reflections on a manuscript his father had been working on before his illness. Rob is the son of Morrie Schwartz who became known to us through Tuesdays with Morrie. And Rob turned his dad's manuscript in a new into a new book Called The Wisdom of Morrie. I loved this book. So the book offered a heartfelt look At aging joyfully and combating the stigma that some people experience as we're growing older, The Wisdom of Morrie offered us a unique blend of psychological analysis and practical tips For living a vibrant life.

And we learned about the incredible empathy Morrie possessed and his vision For a unified world without strife, we can still strive for that vision. We talked about how important it is to support and connect with our aging parents, especially when they are dealing with illness as Rob did with his dad. Communication, finding common ground between the generations, and cherishing every moment Becomes essential. From my conversation with Rob, we gained a deeper appreciation For the life lessons that Morrie imparted, a testament to living well at any age. And that book again was called The Wisdom of Morrie. And finally I completed several episodes of my own I talked about several different topics but I The one I wanted to talk about today was my story of transition and the significance of allowing oneself time to be unfixed from any one course of action. Facing changes And approaching retirement, I emphasize the importance of considering a multitude of possibilities And prioritizing self reflection. My experience of transitioning many times Sought to underscore the constant presence of change and the inner growth that can follow With advice on embracing that messy middle of transitions and listening to our intuition, I hoped to embolden all of you in the Hey, Boomer! community to embrace life's uncertainties with courage And curiosity.

But sibling estrangement can be devastating to the sibling who feels the most rejected because our siblings are our earliest relatives, And we formed bonds with them very early, and we experienced the family dynamics that we grew up in, even though we probably interpret them differently, we still had similar family experiences. So the sibling estrangement can feel very uncomfortable and odd. And it can also cause problems When the parents die because now the estrangement there's no way to communicate Or effectively communicate if there's any kinds of arguments over inheritance. So that's gonna be January 8th. January 15th, I'm really excited about, and I'll tell you how this came about. I was thinking, you know, what else can we talk about in this area of family dynamics? And I thought about, you know, the political feuds that are going on among families, and the the word feud Came to mind, and I thought Hatfields and McCoys. Right? So I started looking that up, and we're gonna meet A best selling author of the book called The Feud, his name is Dean King, and he is the author of 10 nonfiction books, The Feud being one of them. He relishes the adventures involved in making history come to life.

While at the same time, He diligently searches out the truth to turn up new historical details. So as I said, The Feud is the story of the Hatfields and McCoys. And while he was re researching the story, he was actually shot at in Appalachia. But in this episode of Hey Boomer, we'll not only talk about the history of the Hatfields and McCoys, but we're also going to try to bring the discussion into the Present day family feuds. And are there lessons to be learned from the Hatfields and McCoys that can be applied today? Hopefully, none of you have Feuds as intense as they had, but it should be interesting. January 22nd, we're going to speak with therapist Janet Steinkamp about communication skills and how they can help us gain understanding and possibly resolve some tensions in our families. Janet also works with families that are estranged, but she uses an instrument called DISC, d I s c. Some of you may be familiar with this.

It profiles, it it gives us a profile about self knowledge and communication. So understanding our style of communicating and the style of others we're trying to communicate with can help us find ways to communicate more effectively. And then we'll wrap up January with a story of what happens when friends fall out of favor. Margie Zable Fisher is a freelance writer, journalist, and author, And I read an article she wrote titled, How to Prevent Being Estranged From a Friend, and I knew I wanted her on the show. I mean, we've all experienced friendships that dwindled away or the pain of a toxic friendship or, you know, we know that, Oh, it's gosh. It's been months or maybe years since we connected with somebody, and now we're embarrassed. We don't know how to get back in touch. And In our generation, many of us are starting to lose friends to, you know, death, illnesses, and whatever.

It's $25 a month, and you get to speak with a guest On a Zoom meeting, live, in person, and, ask all the questions you want and learn all you want from them. Alright. So my word for the year. Y'all ready? Not gonna tell you yet. Okay. So here's why I do this. I've been selecting a word for my year for many years. I used to set New Year's resolutions, And I suspect, like you, many of the resolutions that we set were soon abandoned once we failed to meet our expectations of what we needed to do to keep that resolution.

So think about it. Like, I'm gonna join the gym and really start working out, and then, You know, you just stop going. Whatever. Things come up. Didn't work. I'm gonna lose weight. This is the year I'm gonna lose weight. Oh, but there's a party and then, oh, that That dark chocolate's really calling my name and darn it.

Failed again. So, you know, we set these goals, these resolutions, and then we mess up. And we think, well, you know, I've already messed up, so I failed, and we beat ourselves up with that negative self talk. And we tell ourselves things like, I'm no good at Setting resolutions or I'm too lazy to get back into shape or you know? I'm I'm just never gonna lose that weight that I wanna lose. It's just part of being older. And the truth is you feel like you failed, and Maybe there's no reason that you feel or motivation to try again. But with a word for the year, You can't fail. You may not get it right all the time, but you still have the rest of the year to live your word.

I even had a couple of them on my show as guests, and I guested on their shows. I have made it a point to get together with friends at least twice a month, if not more, And I have a standing wine date on Friday nights with my mom and stepdad. I did connect with nature on my trips both to Costa Rica and on the windjammer cruise to Maine, but I did not get in all the outdoor hikes I wanted this year. So there were times I didn't always fulfill my connection ideals. Had this been my new year's resolution, I would have failed the 1st time I told one of my friends, I'm just too busy. I can't make it tonight. But I didn't fail because I had another chance to connect with them. I would have failed the 1st time I chose work over a hike.

I am going to be confident about asking well known people to be guests on the show Like Dean King, the author of The Feud. But I'm only gonna ask them if their wisdom and knowledge will enhance What we are trying to learn on a particular episode. So what's the worst they can say? No? Okay. They weren't on in the first place. So if they say no, nothing has changed. Right? And there are many other experts that I can reach out to to help us learn about the topic that we are studying at at that particular time. I also will be confident about finding sponsors that want to support the work we are doing, like Road Scholar who signed up for another year, as I mentioned. This is consistent revenue that I can depend on, And it is so challenging for me to sell myself, so I'm changing my mindset around this.

It's not that I'm selling myself. I'm selling the benefits of Hey, Boomer!, which is for all of you. So the right sponsors will be happy to support this work. Watch me be confident about that, and I will be confident when I start to experience self Doubt in whatever areas of my life it shows up, and it does. So my confidence this year, This is my outcome. My confidence this year will help me generate more revenue to sustain me and the Hey, Boomer! Show. It will also help me grow the Hey, Boomer! audience to reach more people who would benefit from the things that we talk about. I always recommend that you get creative and make a picture or create an image with your word that you can post.

And continue to embrace this time of your life with exploration, self expression, and learning. My name is Wendy Green. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Happy whatever other holidays you're celebrating. And this has been Hey Boomer.