Hannah and Cecilia sat down to chat recently, and found the conversation moving in an unexpected direction. We started asking, what matters now at this stage in our lives? Up until recently, our lives have been driven by external markers, jobs, degrees, partners and successes. But now there seems to be some buried impulse, more internal, emerging and wanting to take the lead. Listen to this week’s podcast as we try to figure out how to listen to ourselves in different ways and forage new paths to live by.

Sleep is not a dead space, but a doorway to a different kind of consciousness – one that is reflective and restorative, full of tangential thought and unexpected insights. In winter, we are invited into a particular mode of sleep: not a regimented eight hours, but a slow, ambulatory process in which waking thoughts merge with dreams, and space is made in the blackest hours to repair the fragmented narratives of our days.

 – Katherine May from Wintering

It’s here, the pull for the long winter’s nap. Time to slow down, time to review, time to take in and make sense of all that’s been. 

We crave it. 

Rest.

We have a feeling we are not alone. 

So much is demanded of us day in and day out. And resting isn’t baked into our cultural course. In fact, most of us feel uncomfortable, even anxious, when trying to take a break from busyness. We don’t know how to do it. We don’t know how to be still. We have forgotten how to listen to ourselves, or how to notice our dreams. We are too busy to stop and remember what’s past, to savor the moment, or imagine a future.

Still, we can try. 

It’s been a full year. We’re getting older and thinking and feeling differently about things.

Listen to the Twisting the Plot podcast and learn how we want to give our plots the twist of rest and digest.

We all tell stories about our lives, some we make up, and some we inherit. 

Through stories, we figure out who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re headed.

Stories grow as we grow.

Our stories about ourselves as individuals and as a collective, are not static things that once set, never evolve.

In fact, most of us encounter crossroads or thresholds of change where the past, present and the future become unclear. It is during these transitional times that our past stories must be retold, roles transformed, and feelings re-experienced and then reconfigured into a new life script.

In this way, our life story making is not just for our pleasure.  It is also our work. 

Life Story Work is the process of making meaning and connecting more deeply to ourselves and with others. It is the work of expanding our identities, resolving our traumas, and integrating our losses.  It is the creative act of growing, personally and culturally.

It’s hard work, and it’s also the way we evolve.

On Twisting the Plot Podcast, Dr. Shoshi Keisari explains life story work as a therapy, and tells us why it is crucial to our ongoing development, especially as we age.

Take a listen.

Dr. Shoshi Keisari is a drama therapist and a lecturer at the School of Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Israel. She researches arts participation in aging, clinical gerontology, and the use of drama therapy in grief work and palliative care. Dr. Keisari has published numerous articles and co-authored a book, An Introduction to Psychotherapeutic Playback theatre: Hall of Mirrors on

This week Twisting the Plot Podcast offers Part II of our conversation with the GenZer, Fran Dintino. 

In many ways, this conversation is just getting started. 

There is so much to explore, so many diverse lenses through which to look at one’s life experience. Intergenerational conversations lead to intergenerational living that is rich and expanding.

We stand on the backs of each other, one generation to the next, forever connected, always in flux. Our shared narratives twist over and over so that we can evolve, and evolve more.

Listen as Boomers Hannah and Cecilia talk with GenZer Fran about community, mental health, our bodies, and aging.

Fran concludes our musings with a call to cultivate a “radically open mind.” 

We like this very much and will try our best.

Maybe you would like to join us.

We are years and years apart.  There are decades between us, the Boomers and the Gen Zer’s.

Our world views are different. Our narratives do not line up.

Can we get along?

Are we able to listen to each other?

We use different language,  we have varied values,  we embody diverse identities. We look different, think different and feel different.

Is it possible to understand each other?

We’re not sure.

But we’ll try.

On this weeks’ podcast we talk with 21-year-old Fran Dintino about generational stereotypes, gender and the many waves of feminism.

Take a listen and join in the conversation.

We often talk about how our minds and bodies are changing as we age. But what about our spirit? Does that evolve too? And what do we mean when we speak about the spirit?

To us, spirit means that which is felt but not seen. Perspective, inner voice, energetic connection with others, gratitude, love and a mindful appreciation for the complexity of life, is what we call – spirit.

To us, this experience of spirit seems to be growing as we age.

We are not alone. 

Erik Erikson and his wife Joan Erikson added a ninth stage to their eight stages of psychosocial development. They defined it as a time for self-reflection, deep life review and resolution. Abraham Maslow termed self-transcendence as a later stage in the hierarchy of human needs. Sociologist Lars Tornstam coined the term gerotranscendence, defining it as a time where we develop a more existential relationship to our lives and relationships. In gerotranscendence we are less egoic, less materialistic, more altruistic, with expanded awareness and tolerance for the whole of life.

We know it sounds a bit unpractical and not pragmatic, but we like that. 

What about you? Are you noticing the edges of something cosmic beckoning to you?

We would love to hear about your twists.

Well, here we are. Another Fall.  Another starting over. 

Whether it’s school, work, or perspective, we (Hannah and Cecilia) find that as the seasons change, so do we. It’s supposed to be that way, right?  Nothing stays the same. 

Yet, as we change, we also preserve the multitudes of who we’ve been in the past. It’s quite the collection. So many years, so many selves.

Writer Anne Lamotte says, “We contain all the ages we have ever been.”  

We are like living nesting dolls. Each doll holding a piece of our personal and collective histories.

But the dolls aren’t fixed. They grow too. Each doll, dwelling within, changes as we evolve.

We are not static. 

We are complex. 

And getting more so each day.

This week’s podcast offers a reflection on change and growth. Join us, as Hannah and Cecilia talk about ways that we are, in body, mind, and spirit, becoming more and more complex.