Host Sherrilynne Starkie welcomes podcaster Agnes Knowles to episode 19 of the 50 Women Over 50 podcast.
Agnes Knowles says she’s retired although she’s very busy as the host of The Boomer Woman podcast. She continues to work as a fitness instructor and a carer for people with dementia in Victoria, B.C. on the west coast of Canada.
When the police showed up at her 50th birthday party, Agnes just took it in stride, much like she did everything about that milestone birthday. But she says, “Turning 60 knocked me for a loop. I woke up that morning and literally couldn’t get out of bed. It took me months to get over it.”
She credits the birth of her first grandchild as being pivotal in dragging her out of this funk along with her gratitude practice. Every day she finds something she is grateful for. Each morning she gets up and looks out the window at her amazing view and says thank you.
Listen here:
About Agnes Knowles:
Agnes Knowles is the host of the Listen Notes top 10% show, the Boomer Woman’s Podcast and is an advocate for over 50s women. In its 4th season, the show appeals to anyone interested in issues affecting the Baby Boomer generation or who enjoys the art of conversation.
Resources & Contact Information:
- Agnes Knowles
- The Boomer Woman Podcast
- Barry White
- Victoria Highland Games and Celtic Festival
- Breethe
About the 50 Women Over 50 Podcast:
Sherrilynne Starkie started this show as a creative project with the goal of interviewing 50 women past their 50th birthday. She wants to learn how they see the world, what lessons they’ve learned and what advice they have for us all. She’s been blogging and podcasting for 18+ years as part of a successful marketing and communications career, and she looks forward to learning from the women she will interview. Subscribe to 50 Women Over 50 wherever you get your podcasts and please share it with your friends. Get each weekly episode dropped into your inbox by subscribing here. If you’d like to be one of the 50 Women over 50 featured on this podcast apply by clicking here.
Machine Generated Transcript
What follows is a machine generated transcript. It may contain errors and is not a substitute for listening to the podcast.
50 Women Over 50 Podcast Episode 19
[00:00:00] Sherrilynne: Hello and welcome to episode 19 of 50 Women Over 50, a podcast for women whose personal confidence is born of experience. I’m your host, Sherrilynne Starkie. My idea for this podcast is to interview 50 women from all walks of life who are over 50 years of age about what they’ve learned by this decade, so that we can all learn from them.
Today I am welcoming to the show fellow podcaster Agnes Knowles, who in retirement started the Boomer Woman Podcast and continues to work as a fitness instructor in beautiful British Columbia’s capital city Victoria. Agnes is the embodiment of today’s boomer woman. She says she’s retired, but when she’s not publishing her podcast and leading exercise groups, she’s busy working as a carer and advocate for people with dementia and as a community volunteer.
[00:00:56] Sherrilynne: So Tell me about your 50th
[00:00:58] Agnes: Birthday. My 50th birthday, actually, my 50th birthday was, The best birthday ever because it was the one birthday. I’m not a big birthday person, but it was the one birthday that I planned and I decided it would go from 12 noon to 12:00 PM like, or 12:00 AM I guess, midnight.
And I invited everybody I knew and said, it’s just a drop in. Come by when you can. You’ve got to sign my guest book, and if you feel the need to bring a gift, I want you to bring something that from your home that’s gently used, because it’s all going to my favorite charity. Okay? And so, I ended up with a garage full of stuff and.
As the day proceeded. My, my niece was living with me at the time and she was going to like cook’s college or something, so she handled all the food and then, people were coming and going. It was really fabulous. And then it was mid a week, I, maybe Thursday evening, and it started to wind down early, because of course everybody had to work the next day.
And about, nine o’clock there was six or seven of us standing in my kitchen, which you could see from the front windows. All of a sudden and my, what is my son, my daughter and a couple of nieces were out on my deck and my son sticks his head in the window or in the sliding door and goes mom, the police are here.
Oh, they went, oh. And my one regret is that I didn’t get a photograph. I was so excited. And because it was such a long stretch, I think it was like on my second glass of wine, I was not inebriated. Oh yeah. So, I went out the front door and I was like…Hi, welcome to my birthday. And these two police officers are looking at me, and you can tell they’re a little embarrassed because, my son was handling the stereo and it was Barry White singing these mellow songs.
And so like, they’re going like, ah, is this the party? And I said, yeah, do you want to come in and have a drink? And they’re going like, yeah, no, we can’t do that. And I said, okay, just out of curiosity, what constitutes a noise complaint? And they said somebody phones it in. So it was kind of strange because I had actually knocked on all my neighbor’s doors and left them invitations, saying this is what I’m doing.
So, you know, please don’t get upset, just drop in. But so that was my 50th birthday and I’ve got this wonderful guest book to this day and it’s one of my favorite memories. And I just love telling people that the police arrived at my 50th birthday party. It doesn’t
[00:03:17] Sherrilynne: sound like it was a real rager though.
[00:03:19] Agnes: I didn’t want a rager. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to see, you know, all my favorite people And get my guest book signed and yeah, somebody just complained about Barry White . Oh, okay.
[00:03:32] Sherrilynne: Like maybe they would’ve preferred Justin Bieber or something.
[00:03:36] Agnes: Justin Bieber wasn’t born when I turned.
Well, maybe he was just, Ah, dear.
[00:03:43] Sherrilynne: Okay, well, did you go back and check your guest list and see which one of your neighbors didn’t come to your party?
[00:03:50] Agnes: Well, actually my next door neighbor, when I mentioned it to her, she said, I know which neighbor that would be, and I didn’t want to know. I thought, ah, whatever, you know, like, if that’s, yeah, the type of neighbor they are, so be it.
But,
[00:04:03] Sherrilynne: So in the lead up to your fifties, you said you don’t really do birthdays, but were you like worried like, oh my God, I’m going to be 50, I’m going to be over the hill, or
[00:04:11] Agnes: No, I come from a long line of long livers. So, 50 to me was just another birthday. Although I did want to plan it because you know, it’s sort of half century.
It was, it’s kind of special. Yeah. 60, 60 knocked me for a loop. And I did that came out of the blue. Literally, it’s just like, oh, here I am 60, I have another birthday. And I woke up on that morning and I couldn’t get out of bed. It was just like, Ugh. And I think it, I figured out fairly quickly that it was the first time in my life with a momentous birthday that I finally realized I had less time going forward than I had behind me.
And it was scary. Well, scary sort of, I don’t know quite what the word is. It was just like, took the wind out of my sail definitely.
[00:04:51] Sherrilynne: Sounds like. So, when you say you couldn’t get out of bed, like, tell me what that means. Was it like days in bed or hours?
[00:04:58] Agnes: Well, oh yeah. I mean, I say I couldn’t get out of bed.
Literally, I did, because fortunately for me, I had a client who needed breakfast on the table, and because of my client, I had to go through all the motions. But it really took probably months. Finally, and I, I talked to a few people who said, oh yeah, you know, my boss went through that at 60 or you know, this and that and the next, and finally saying, okay, let’s just put that behind me.
And do you know, I may have 20 years, I may have 40 years, I may have 50 years ahead of me. I mentioned that long line of long livers and I just finally dug in my heels and started going.
[00:05:45] Sherrilynne: Right. So, you just had like what’s the word? Like a declaration? This is over. I’m finished feeling bad.
[00:05:52] Agnes: I think it’s a survival thing too.
I mean, I am not the type of person to go through life feeling depressed and crappy and that it’s like, I love life. I love enjoying my friends. I love enjoying my family. And long in the face, long in the mouth, whatever it was just didn’t work. So, I really did have to turn it. Right.
[00:06:13] Sherrilynne: And you said it took months?
Yeah.
[00:06:15] Agnes: Yeah, it did. Okay. I think it helped that I had a grandson by then. Oh yes. And you know, so when you got a little guy that is, it’s sort of the joy of your life. You really do work on putting it out there. You know, I didn’t want to be that old. Woman that I see women from time to time, people from time to time, and you really look at them and think, oh my goodness, if they actually smiled, their face would crack.
Yeah. And I feel sad for them, you know, maybe they’ve had a great life and that’s just the face. But that’s sort of my thought and I didn’t want to be that person or look like that person.
[00:06:53] Sherrilynne: So, tell me about becoming a grandmother. How was that for you?
[00:06:56] Agnes: Well, it was a surprise, but it was the coolest thing. Because, my daughter’s friend didn’t stick around.
Okay? So, they came, my daughter and my grandson came to live with me, and to this day, he and I are good buds. His mother laughs at some of the stuff that he does. At my request, because I’m the only person he’d do it for. He would, he just gives his mother, you know, he is 13, he gives his mother a little bit of attitude and stuff like that.
Whereas with me, it’s just like, sure grandma. Sure grandma, that’s great because we spent so much time together. Yeah. So, it’s,
[00:07:32] Sherrilynne: it’s a great bond. Is it, isn’t it? Between, Grandmother and grandchild.
[00:07:37] Agnes: It, it is, and it’s interesting that one of my granddaughters was a covid baby. So, she was born in December, right before Covid.
Right. So, we didn’t get to see, I didn’t get to see very much of her. And then when she was about, Two, maybe. They moved over here and for the longest time if I visited, and because we were all being so careful, I have elderly clients, so I am paranoid about wearing a mask and stuff like that.. and I go to visit, but she’d, she’d sit across the room and she’d just look at me because she hadn’t seen other people.
Yes. Without mask. In your own home, you know, that sort of thing. So, yeah. You know, she’s come round now and I get my hugs and everything else, so that’s good. So, yeah.
[00:08:22] Sherrilynne: Yeah, it was, I heard similar stories. I have a client who had a, their first grandson was a Covid baby, and she told me, He’s only ever seen four humans in his life.
in person.
Like, it’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out.
[00:08:39] Agnes: It is interesting. Her older sister, two years older is a social butterfly. But she was also pre covid, so she got to go to play school and all the little playgroups and stuff like that at the rec center. But it’s, and it’s so hard to know, is it just personality?
Because personality can vary between siblings. or is it that covid effect
[00:08:57] Sherrilynne: and. It doesn’t sound like life changed much for you after you turned 50, but is there, was there any kind of distinct new things that you took on, or was life changed in any way?
[00:09:13] Agnes: I think as the kids got into their older teens I just started taking on more adventures, and it wasn’t in preparation for my 50th, but like on my 48th birthday present to myself was motorcycle lessons.
And then I had an older car that was giving me problems, so I thought I got to sell it. And a friend said, why don’t you buy a corvair? So I bought a 65 corvair hot red, and just, I was having so much fun through my fifties. It was, it was just one of those, yeah, I had this fun car that was a conversation starter.
[00:09:48] Sherrilynne: You’re my second lady biker.
[00:09:50] Agnes: Oh, oh,. Well, people with neighbors would say, are you having a midlife crisis? And it like, there is no, no crisis here whatsoever.
[00:09:59] Sherrilynne: And are you still on a bike then?
[00:10:01] Agnes: No, actually my knees got bad enough that to keep it in that slightly bent position for too long was problematic. And I got concerned about having to put my feet down suddenly or like something, and I just went, you know, I’m not feeling as, as safe on the bike anymore. So, I sold it and I mean, I, I actually kept it.
A year and a half, I think, before I put it up on Craigslist.
[00:10:26] Sherrilynne: Yes. So, this is something that I observe from my interview with my other biker. I think she’s episode 12. Yeah. Episode 12. Is that, There’s a really strong camaraderie among women who are bikers, like really strong.
[00:10:44] Agnes: Yes. I, I don’t think, I think I experienced that quite as much as a lot of people because I had a big old heavy bike.
Yeah. And. It was big enough that I was always aware, like especially in the first year maybe, of going like, this is a big bike, and I don’t want to feel the need to keep up with anybody. Yeah. So, I did a lot of my biking alone and then I started joking that if you want to rainstorm or a hailstorm or some sort of storm, put me on the highway on my bike.
It happens so often.
[00:11:19] Sherrilynne: Yes. Well, I think that’s a factor of where you live. Right.
. Now, thinking back on when you first started out in the working world, when you were in your thirties, what were you doing?
[00:11:30] Agnes: Oh, when I was in my thirties, I was actually starting to make babies.
Prior to that I have had just a, a gazillion careers or jobs or whatever you want to call it. Hotel business, bar business, those sorts of things ended up in elder care, which. It was a little bit later in life and loved it, still love it, still do some private companion work, that sort of thing.
[00:11:51] Sherrilynne: So, you had, you were married with children?
Yes. How many little ones did you.
[00:11:57] Agnes: I had three little ones who grew up into three big ones, and , despite the teens, it’s all worked out really well. I had three kids in three years, so during the teens, I thought that they’re going to push each other off the roof at some point in time, and if they don’t, I may push all three of them together.
we, we all survived.
[00:12:17] Sherrilynne: So, with what you know now in life, thinking back to when you were a young mother, what advice would you give yourself?
[00:12:25] Agnes: Holy Crikey. This too will pass. Yeah. Although I, I shouldn’t complain because we actually had a lot of fun.
My former husband traveled a lot. He’d be gone for two, three months at a time. And so, the four of us became a bit of a unit. You know, we do our holidaying in the van and go traveling and do stuff, or just even play around at home with friends and tea parties and all the rest of it. So just keep on keeping on, I guess.
It’s, and I guess also looking back, enjoy it. Enjoy it while you have it because it is fleeting and you know, you have , I was going to say older women, and now I’m the older woman. I remember older women saying, enjoy it. It, it doesn’t last. Yes. And, and now I guess I am saying the exact same thing of just like, yeah.
Savor every moment. It’s,
[00:13:17] Sherrilynne: yeah. It’s a hard lesson to teach to our, our younger. Colleagues, so our younger cohorts, because like you, I remember my mother saying the same thing you know, slow down and enjoy it. And now when family members have babies, I’m shocked how fast those babies grow.
When I had them myself, it seemed like forever. I was doing diapers and stuff. Yeah. But now I’m like, like I, I cannot believe that kid’s going to school already. Didn’t you just have that baby? You know?
[00:13:49] Agnes: When you’re a teenager, you can’t wait for the years to go by because then you’ve got high school behind you. You know? Yes. It’s, you keep on pushing for the, the next stage.
[00:13:57] Sherrilynne: Yes, and we, like, we, I used to be proud when someone said, oh, you know, you’re only 15.
I thought you were at least 19. I’d be like, yeah, I look so mature now, and now it’s the other way. Whatever. It’s like, oh, you’re almost 60. I thought you were, you were like in your forties. I’m like, thank you,
[00:14:16] Agnes: Yeah, exactly.
[00:14:19] Sherrilynne: Woman. Thy name is Vanity. Right? That’s us at every
[00:14:23] Agnes: age.
It’s, yeah. Interesting you say that because I, before we came on live here, I had mentioned to you that if the camera’s running, I’m going to put a little bit of makeup on and, and I, I rarely wear makeup. And then of course I’ve, I’ve just moved, I haven’t finished unpacking and I’m walking around going like, oh my goodness, which box would it be in?
Never did find it. And I chuckled it myself thinking, yep. You, there’s still vanity in there, as, as wash and wear as I like to say. I am. I’m still have that vanity. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:14:54] Sherrilynne:
Well, yeah, but it’s all about, you know, your own self in image and your concept of how you see yourself and how you want to present to the world.
I mean, we we’re hearing lots of studies coming out about the impact of Instagram on, on our younger generations, because everything they do in their life is through the, the context of how will this look on social media. Yeah. Not, you know, not am I having fun and am I learning and. Who am I meeting?
, it really is about how is this going to look on social media and I’m sad for them.
[00:15:26] Agnes: Well, but the same thing happened to, to my generation, certainly. I mean, I started out with, with Barbie and then it took me to my forties to understand that with my. Build in my bone structure, I’m never going to have a 23 inch waist
[00:15:42] Sherrilynne: so, you say you’re still working and do you have any plans for retire? I did
[00:15:49] Agnes: retire. This is retirement.
[00:15:51] Sherrilynne: Oh, this is retirement. You’re
[00:15:53] Agnes: working in your retirement. Well, yeah. I mean it’s, it’s interesting. I, well, you talked about the bikers who stick together. A friend of mine who’s a biker likened finishing the nine to five to retiring a vehicle or your bike.
Okay. You know, if you’re going out in the snow, you put different tires on you. You know you’re summer driving. You put different tires on, you know, if you go on in the, on the beach in a dune buggy, there are different tires, yet you go on the racetrack, you know, you got your, your slicks. So, for whatever’s going on, that’s you’re just retiring.
Oh, I see. Yeah. And I really like that analogy of define retirement. I can’t define it.
[00:16:40] Sherrilynne: Okay. Yes. Well, I do know there’s some people I know that have retired because I live here in Ottawa and we’re basically a civil service town. and it’s Freedom 55 is an actual reality for a large proportion of the population.
And I think that’s unique in the public service town, you know, when you’re, because of the way the public service works and Once they retire, they become some of the busiest people I know,. Right. They’re just doing other things rather than going in, into the office or Yeah, they’re, they’re working in their communities.
They’ve got second jobs, what they call side hustles and, you know, traveling and sports and everything. Yeah. So,
[00:17:26] Agnes: And it was interesting for me because I have a lot of older people in my life with my, my seniors fitness class. They rage an age from late sixties through to next week we’re celebrating some of theses 96.
Okay. And, you know, they, they’ve just, they were so busy pre covid with their volunteering with this, you know, traveling, going to, you know, the, the Elvis get togethers, that sort of thing. Just enjoying and doing and contributing. And since Covid. There is a real reluctance to get back into public spaces with strangers.
So, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. And I know that was just on the news recently out here on the West coast, that some of the groups like that need volunteers that depend on volunteers are really starting to struggle because they’re seniors haven’t come back.
[00:18:15] Sherrilynne: Yes, we’re seeing that here as well.
So I, a couple of my clients ha are not-for-profits and they kind of rely on volunteer labor. Yeah. And, they’re just, it’s not there. People are not doing it. They’re not coming out, they’re not risking their own health, you know, and, and although. For all intents and purposes, life is pretty much back to normal.
Like, I don’t know if you, if it got covered outside of this market, but the, the Federal Publics Service went back to work this week for the first time you could have shot a cannon down on, down our major highways at five o’clock up until this week.
Well, I say I’m all for it. Like the, the sooner we get back to life is normal, the happier I am, that’s for sure.
[00:19:02] Agnes: I’ve just always called it the current normal
[00:19:06] Sherrilynne: Where do you see yourself in 10 years then
[00:19:11] Agnes: in 10 years? Oh, that’s a hard one. You know, I want to say traveling more and doing more stuff. And then, you know, you, you hear about all the issues with airlines and stuff like that, and I. There’s, you know, they say we’re going to have another pandemic.
We’ve got the environment to think about.
I would love to think that I am still doing some of the things I’m doing, whether it’s a little bit of work with older clients. I love dementia, love dementia care, and I love my exercise class. You know, hopefully that 96 year old will be 106 and still coming and making us all last, because that’s what she does.
I love my podcast. And I can’t imagine running out of people to interview, so I didn’t put 50 people on like you did on your title. So,
[00:20:03] Sherrilynne: you get to keep going. So, tell me a little bit more about your podcast. How did you, how did you come into being a podcaster?
[00:20:11] Agnes: I had a friend, my, the podcast is the Boomer Woman’s podcast up until December of 2022.
It was called Two Boomer Women, and I had. A friend. I mean, we weren’t close friends, but we knew each other well enough, and we used to talk several times a week. She had been an investigative reporter. She had traveled she had opinions about, just about everything, and she was so interesting.
Our conversations would go down, paths that I just would never have imagined. And finally, one day I said, you know, like, this is incredible. We should start a podcast just for the fun of it because maybe somebody would like to just pour themselves a coffee and eves drop. You know, whether it was her experiences or our combined opinions, sometimes we agreed, sometimes we didn’t agree, but we were always civil and it was just so much fun.
So I did, I’m a bit of a techie nowadays, since I turned 50. And so I put together the podcast and that we launched in March of 20. Which of course is when Covid hit the, the waves and she had a mother in care. So many of our conversations were either scared about Covid people are being stupid about covid.
It was just became the mainstay of our conversations and that wasn’t what I was planning. We kept going until about the fall, I think, and then she was dropping off, just I think partly stress and partly everything, and I sort of limped through the fall and then just said, you know, I like doing this.
So I’d interviewed her, just a couple of friends, just to keep the podcast going. And then in January of 2021, I just said, I’m going to start interviewing anybody that has a message that I can tie into Boomer women. So, it became the Boomer Woman’s podcast. And
[00:22:15] Sherrilynne: what would you say, if I pressed you, is the single biggest thing that you’ve learned from being a
[00:22:21] Agnes: podcaster?
Everybody’s got a story. I’m amazed at how many people that, I mean, I find, you know, whether I get approached by someone or I go looking for someone is someone has taken their story and shared it. I, I really appreciate people who say, this was my experience, and this is what I’m doing with it. Even if it’s just sharing it, you don’t necessarily have to go out and fix people with the same story or try to help them. It’s just a matter of normalizing, I guess, a lot of experiences for people because when you’re in the middle of it, sometimes you can’t see that.
Life is still going on, you know, and to know that other people are out there in the same boat or have ridden the boat and gotten off it. I just, yeah, that’s one thing I’ve learned.
[00:23:18] Sherrilynne: And what, what’s your favorite interview out of all the interviews you’ve done? Oh, man. , it’s like asking which, which is your favorite child,
[00:23:27] Agnes: right?
I just went live a couple of weeks ago. I call him a young man because compared to me first of all, he said something in his bio that it was, he, he’s a financial advisor, but he talked about learning guitar and the stage fright that he had.
And what, wait a minute, everybody I know has stage fright about something, let’s go with the stage fright. So, I really pursued something that he doesn’t usually talk about. It’s not his business. We had so much fun
I started, transcribing interviews. So I’ve got the words because there was so many nuggets. And I, a couple of years ago had developed a, a 12 month journal and I had like a, a quote, sort of a inspirational quote or something. I had collected 370 different quotes, and I figured by now I’ve probably got 370, quotes from guests.
That are either thought-provoking or insightful or something or just plain funny that, I’m going to start replacing the quotes in that journal and should publish it. Well, I just might do that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s on the, it’s on the list of things to do. Yeah.
[00:24:44] Sherrilynne: I think like people like buying that kind of stuff.
Inspirational quote of the day kind of thing. And this is from real people that. You know, it’s well and to just, it’s, it’s like real people’s insights, so, yeah. Yeah.
[00:24:58] Agnes: Sounds like a good idea. Yeah. It was so interesting realizing that, whoa, that, you know, when, when somebody says something that really, you go like, whoa, I got to remember that.
You know, it’s, it’s pretty cool.
[00:25:10] Sherrilynne: So, what are you reading or watching, or what are you binging personally
[00:25:14] Agnes: these days? Okay. I’m that person. I don’t have a tv. Oh,
[00:25:19] Sherrilynne: awesome. Good for you too.
[00:25:21] Agnes: I’ve tried Netflix. I tried, what’s the other one? Disney Plus because Of the grandchildren? Yes. Now Disney Plus was kind of cool because they had National Geographic.
Okay. I, I love documentaries I like the ones that do in fact talk about real things. And there’s been a few people who have had shows and for whatever reason the platform has dropped them.
So, I’m sort of a little bit tired of all that. And I must admit, I’m looking forward to settling in and I’m just going to get another jigsaw puzzle. Oh, nice. So that’s my evening’s a glass of wine and a jigsaw puzzle. Sounds like
[00:25:57] Sherrilynne: a little bit divine actually.
Okay. I think we’ve kind of already talked about what you’re doing, supporting and volunteering.
Is there any kind of volunteer stuff. Involved in that we haven’t talked about yet?
[00:26:09] Agnes: I spent a lot of years volunteering everything from the United Way to, special Olympics to hospice. And I, I reached a stage when I sold my house a few years ago that I just sort of said, you know, I, I need a break from caregiving, volunteering, all that stuff.
However, just last week, a person that I’ve met recently said, why don’t you come and volunteer with me at the Highland Games? And that’s coming up in the spring. And I thought, you know, maybe it would be, you know, I love, you know, having those things to do, but to do something that’s just strictly for fun, you know, it’s a volunteer.
It’s not an ongoing thing.
[00:26:44] Sherrilynne: Right. And finite. Yeah. You’re focused on a project and when you’re done you can say, done. Time to move on.
[00:26:49] Agnes: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I’ll probably get back into it at some point in time, but, Yeah, it’s.
[00:26:54] Sherrilynne: Is there an app you
[00:26:55] Agnes: can’t live without? An app? I can’t live without probably my meditation app. Oh, which one? Oh, my goodness. Breathe. Okay. It’s b r e e t h e. It used to be called something else. I’ve had it for years and it’s how I end my day.
I used to do it a couple of times a day. I still use it. Actually, it, it’s funny, after this many years, I know how to do my breathing and if I’m stuck in traffic or if I’m late and stuck in traffic, it’s just like, Can’t change this, you know, and you just keep the shoulders down. And then before bed, it’s a, I love doing either if I’m relaxing in the evening with a puzzle or something, I’ll often just have the relaxation music on.
And then before bed, I love having one of the guided meditations, and I rare, rarely hear the end of it.
[00:27:42] Sherrilynne: Oh, I have a link to that in the show notes. Oh, yay. The one that I published this week, she all, she had a similar one that only, it’s called calm. Do you know that one? Oh,
[00:27:52] Agnes: I’ve heard Calm, yeah.
And I can’t remember. I think I signed on to Calm at one point in time and then discontinued and I can’t remember why. So, it’s not that
[00:27:59] Sherrilynne: your first love was Breethe, that’s why,
[00:28:01] Agnes: yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever it was called in those days. I can’t remember. It’s,
[00:28:06] Sherrilynne: and do you have any other life hacks that you could offer our over 50 women crowd?
[00:28:14] Agnes: Get up every morning and find something to say thank you for. I’m so fortunate this new place I, I’m living in a client’s home. It’s the situation, like physical situation is amazing and I literally get out of bed every morning and I look at my view and the space and I just say thank you and then.
Yeah, just keep on saying thank you. Say thank you for a green light. Say thank you for a for a smile. For a stranger say, thank you for getting something on sale. It’s so,
[00:28:42] Sherrilynne: what’s the benefit to you to say thank you?
[00:28:47] Agnes: I think it just keeps you grounded insofar as it’s so easy to get going with life.
You, you always can find out what you don’t have, what you don’t know, what you can’t afford. And yet you look at your life and, and what you do have. And there must be something in there. And if there isn’t, then start with something, as I say, a green light, a walk sign.
Like I just feel it so important to, to feel the gratitude.
As often as you can.
[00:29:23] Sherrilynne:
This has been 50 women over 50, a podcast for women whose personal confidence is born of experience. I want to thank my guest, fellow podcaster, Agnes Knowles, for joining me today. Five minutes after first speaking with Agnes, I knew she was a kindred spirit. Her pragmatic positivity makes her a role model for us all as we make our way through our fifties and into our sixties. Her sense of adventure and joie de vivre inspires me and gives me hope for more fun in my own future. See the show notes to find out more about Agnes and her show, the Boomer Woman’s Podcast, and where you can connect with her online.
I’ve included links to her website and socials along with ones to some of the other items that we discussed on the show. Join me again for next week’s show when I will welcome author Marjorie Turner Hollman, who after having life-saving brain surgery, found herself paralyzed on her right side. As part of her healing journey, she has penned five Easy Walks, books designed to help people with mobility issues get out and enjoy the outdoors.
[00:30:32] Sherrilynne: that’s next week, but in the meantime, please drop me a rating or a review on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
Let’s connect and create a whole community of Wise Women over 50 by sharing a link to the show with your friends and connections. We’ll see you next time on 50 Women Over 50. I’m your host, Sherrilynne Starkie
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