77. It's my Birthday! Life lessons on Turning 60!

Today, I turn 60. And instead of slowing down, I’m stepping fully into who I was always meant to be.

In this special solo episode of Joy of the Hang, I’m sharing the life lessons that didn’t just shape me — they transformed me. The moments that broke me open, the experiences that rebuilt me, and the connections that reminded me what it truly means to belong.

This isn’t just a reflection on age — it’s a celebration of growth, resilience, and the power of choosing joy, again and again.

I talk about what I’ve learned about relationships, reinvention, courage, and why it’s never too late to become more of yourself. Because the truth is, the most meaningful parts of life aren’t behind us — they’re built in the moments we choose to show up, reach out, and connect.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re still becoming… you are.

And maybe the best years of your life aren’t ahead or behind — they’re happening right now.

Let’s hang. 💛

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Joy of the Hang. I'm your host, Sharon Stevenson, and I'm excited to be here with you today on this special day and this special episode. Today's my birthday! And I turn 60. It's my first solo episode, and I have some wisdom to impart to all of you. Today, I've been thinking about what turning 60 actually means. Not the number, but what it is to become 60. So if I'm being honest, and I think we all would, life doesn't follow a script, right? Somewhere between the auto graveyard of my childhood and the life I've built today, I realized something. We're all just trying to belong. And most of us are never taught how. So today I want to share the eight lessons through the lens of wellness, connection, and the hang that have shaped who I've become. You don't get to 60 without a few plot twists. There's loss, reinvention, risk, reinvention again, moments you're proud of, and moments you barely survived. But what I've learned is this life doesn't break you, it builds you if you let it. So here's what I used to believe, here's what life's taught me, here's what I know now. Number one, lesson number one, you cannot heal what you refuse to feel. So let's talk about my childhood loss. So I mentioned I was brought up in an auto graveyard, is what I call it. And the reason I call it that is because we lived in a junkyard. My dad was a mechanic, he raised cars, I mean everything to do with cars, right? And he would recycle metal from the cars that no longer were useful. So oftentimes, I think today they call it I don't even know what recycling, right? Auto recycling. And so what they would do is if you needed a part back in the day before everything became electronic, you would go to a junkyard and you would search for the part there. So say you needed a new carburetor for a special car, you would go. So I would look at it like oh, it's like organ donation, right? It's like all these bodies. The body itself is no longer useful, but it still has useful parts that can be then given to someone else who needs it. It's the same with cars, so that's why I think of it as this auto graveyard. Well, anyway, so I was brought up in this environment, which actually was kind of fun because you could have make-believe in all these cars, and a bus would turn into a castle, or you it would just be it was just a lot of fun. So it doesn't sound it's not as bad as it sounds. That being said, however, um, my dad passed away uh one day he was getting these cars ready for recycling, and the way you would do that is you would take a bulldozer and one car, you pick one car up at a time and put it on the pile below. So you would stack these cars for high. So think of it as a Lego tower, right? So you're putting these blocks on top of one another, and then what happens is the company that crushes the cars comes in with this big machine and they flatten the cars so that they can take them down the highway for recycling. So my dad, one Saturday, was stacking these cars. It was August 3rd, 1977. I'll never forget the day, and he takes a bulldozer and he's up in the cab of the bulldozer, and the car that was supposed to fall on the car below on top of the stack, rather than going forward, went backwards and fell on top of him and crushed him immediately. And I can say this now with very little emotion because it's like a distant memory. It happened so long ago. But let me tell you, right now, it's something that shaped who I am today and created lots of trauma for me. And I've dealt with feelings of abandonment my whole life because when that happened with my dad, I was 11 years old, my brother was nine, and I wasn't with him. So, and he was crushed beyond recognition, and therefore the casket at the funeral was closed. And so it was literally as though he disappeared into thin air because there was no closure. So, like I said, I'm far removed from that now because it was, let's see, oh my gosh, 49 years ago that this happened, but is stuck in my being ever since. So that was, you have to be able to feel that kind of emotion and understand. So I have I've had to work through it. I still work through it. There are still times when I get triggered with that feeling of abandonment, and I allow myself to feel that sensation when it comes up. I grieve, I work through it and realize that I am not that inner child anymore. I am an adult who can handle the situations. So we talk about emotional avoidance versus emotional courage. So I would avoid that for the longest time and push it down and push it down. And then finally, one day I went to therapy and had the courage to say goodbye to my dad. And the way I did that was I wrote him a letter, told him all the things, and I was angry. I was not just sad, I was angry because he left me. He was a he was the one person that was supposed to stay by my side and he left me. And I was so mad at him for leaving, even though it wasn't his choice. And I was mad that he wasn't there when I graduated from college. He wasn't there when I got married to walk me down the aisle. He wasn't there to hold his first grandchild. I was so angry for all the missing moments that I didn't get with him. And I would see, you know, other friends of mine with their dads and, you know, the first father-daughter dance. All of those things that I felt very upset about, obviously. And now as an adult, I can realize obviously if he could have been here, he would have wanted to. And truthfully, he's with me every day in my memories. Even though my memories are short and buried deep inside a lot of my memories are coming from photographs. It's still important, right? So for years I thought strength meant holding it together. Now I know strength means letting it move through you. So that's lesson number one. Lesson number two, connection isn't automatic, it's intentional. So we're talking about social wellness, which is why I created Julia the Hang. Because right now we live in a world that is so, should be so connected, right? We've got social media, we have FaceTime, we have so much technology that leaves us, that enables us rather to be connected, and yet we're more disconnected than ever, which blows my mind. Loneliness is an epidemic in our country, in our world, really. Suicide rates are skyrocketing. And people feel this sense of they want to belong somewhere, but they are so different, they don't fit in, or whatever it is, right? And so to really, I really encourage people like embrace your differences, embrace the fact that you're unique and one of a kind. And especially in your youth, oh my God, like it's so crazy to me because people are being bullied, and it's so much worse now with social media, and my heart goes out to you. But I want everybody to know those things that make you so unique and different now are things that are going to make you so special later on. Like I just wish you would understand, like that period of time when you're in high school is so short. You have such a long life to live, you know, and even people in their older age that are feeling left out. We have the capability to create the life we want and to build these connections. There's so many ways to be connected, and people want to help. So I encourage you to reach out and create environments where you feel seen and heard. And we've got to remember we're born to bond. Somewhere along the way, we forget how, but we have to remember that people want to connect with us. So I talk about the hang, joy of the hang, H-A-N-G. And for me, if you like acronyms like I do, Hang means H stands for habits, daily microhabits that create connection. Text somebody, call somebody, have lunch. A is attention. Pay attention to pay and give attention, actually, give attention to somebody who might need it if you haven't heard from them in a while. And that brings me to notice. Notice if people aren't showing up, reach out, be that person, and gee, give gratitude. Gratitude is so important. Daily gratitude. You have to get into that practice of not looking at the lack, but look at the abundance of what you do have. So it's easy to feel sorry for ourselves when we're not getting what we want, but we have to remember to give gratitude for what we have, and you'll get more of it. I promise. Number three, the lesson is your body keeps core. We're talking about physical wellness and it tells the truth before you do. So we talk about stress, burnout, energy, aging with awareness versus fear. For me, physical wellness comes above all else because without health, you do not have wealth. I have another friend who's just a couple years older who just got diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. I just got a call today that my 42-year-old nephew just died of a heart attack within the last week because he was overweight and his heart couldn't handle it. He was 300 pounds overweight. So, you know, we really have to take care of our health because it doesn't matter how much wealth you build towards retirement if you don't have your health to then enjoy it. Because we spend all of our life working for somebody else or having our own business or whatever it is, and we try to build this nest egg for later, right? For someday to have all the things, but then you get to someday and you're you don't have your health to enjoy it. So for me, health is paramount, and I cannot encourage you enough to start being aware of your nutrition and your exercise and your sleep. Those are like the three big parameters of health. So, what that means in terms of nutrition, you really need to, and I don't mean to be preachy, but I'm gonna be preachy for a minute, cut sugar out as much as possible. And doesn't mean you can't have a piece of birthday cake. I've had, I think, a piece of birthday cake every day for the last week. But that being said, I take a small amount and I only do this on occasion. I do not have sweets every day, but um I really encourage you to cut sugar out as much as possible. Causes so much inflammation in the body. The other thing I cut out a lot of is a lot of gluten, so I get rid of, I don't eat a ton of pasta unless it's made, like I'll eat it. If it's made, it's different if it's like from Italy, right? Like if it's a good restaurant that makes it with the good semolina flour, I'll eat it. But mostly I eliminate pasta, I eliminate bread. Again, everything's okay on occasion and in moderation, but your daily diet should consist mostly of protein and vegetables. Easy. That's it. If you can remember that rule of thumb, have a fist size full of vegetables, and this should be about the size of your protein. Now, there's all kinds of new science coming out about protein that you should have over a gram per pound of protein. So if you weigh 100 pounds, you should be eating 100 grams of protein every day. That's a lot, but you should try to get that that amount of protein. None of us are getting enough. And when I talk about vegetables, it's important to get your green vegetables. Don't eat as many carrots and corn and the vegetables and fruits that are high in sugars. Try to eat more of your dark green, leafy vegetables, Brussels sprouts, spinach, asparagus, broccoli, kale, obviously, on and on. Anyway, that's my speech on nutrition. And then with exercise, it doesn't have to be crazy. Like my husband spends an hour and a half at the gym every day. Now he's trying to build a lot of muscle. For those of us that are turning 60, walk every day. And you know, maybe do Pilates, do some yoga, do some stretching. We need bone density, so we really need strength training. So make sure you're doing some sort of strength training. But that being said, just being active. If you like to dance, dance. Do whatever it is you like to do. As long as you're moving your body, you're gonna need that as we age. And sleep. Sleep is so important. And I found like unfortunately, I need more of it now than I ever have. I am recovering. Actually, I broke my arm three weeks ago now, and so I'm recovering. My body is really needing more sleep than before. And yeah, I'm finding that I don't know if it's an aging thing or if it's an injury thing, but I need a nap almost every day, and I don't feel bad about it. So listen to your body, give it the rest it needs because it's working really hard internally. So we go on to gosh, number four, mental wellness is our first lesson number four. Your thoughts are powerful, but they are not always true. Let's talk about self-doubt, reinvention, shifting your identity. The quote I like is you don't find yourself, you create yourself. So let's talk about this. I have struggled most of my life, believe it or not, with self-doubt. So, what do you do with those thoughts? I think you have to realize they are just thoughts, and you can create any thoughts you want. So if in the morning you're feeling, oh my gosh, I can't tell you how many times I felt so negative, like I'm not good enough, I'm not pretty enough, I'm not smart enough, oh my gosh. I mean, the narrative, I used to call it dancing with demons because for my, I would have to overcome all of these negative self-talk narratives. And I would have to turn my literally put post-its on my mirror where I would say, you are pretty, you're good enough, you are loved, whatever it is that you need to say to yourself to switch it because your thoughts will create your reality. Okay. So you really have to give yourself grace and be able to be positive with what you're telling yourself. So, and I know it's hard on these dark days when you are just miserable. Um, and you know, sometimes on those days, I will just give myself an extra hour to be, you know, or however much time you allow yourself to have those thoughts, have the thoughts, let it pass through. I had a friend who used to say when he'd get those negative thoughts, he would say, Thank you, but you're not welcome here. Thanks for coming, but you're not welcome here, and go away. And he would replace it with whatever mantra he needed to replace it with. Or I would, for me, the thing that will shift me is I'll watch a funny chick flick, or I'll put on a song that makes me happy, or I'll go for a walk, or I will I usually won't call a friend because I'm too dark, I'm too like depressed. I don't want to talk to anybody. But I'll do whatever brings me joy. Maybe I'll go and make myself, I love to make, I love to cook. So maybe I'll make homemade chocolate chip cookies that make me feel good, or sit in the sun for an hour. But anyway, just find a way to shift that energy because you deserve to have positive thoughts and positive days. So you have to create that. And the more you do that, the more you train your brain, the more those positive thoughts will come to you and you'll eliminate the negative. Lesson number five, occupational wellness, purpose over position. So we're gonna talk about how my career started. I actually majored in broadcast journalism in college and ended up in the hotel business after college. Mainly because A, it was difficult back then in 1988 to find a job in journalism. That was when I think CNN was just coming onto the scene and 24-hour news was just coming onto the scene. But back in the day, there were only three major networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS. And those were the networks where you got jobs, or you got a job on a small radio station, newspaper. All of those were jobs that you would go for. But they didn't have, I don't think Fox News was around. They didn't have 24-hour news news stations. So there weren't as many jobs, and of course, I saw myself as a news anchor on the Today Show immediately. It did not happen. So I ended up going into the hotel business, which was amazing. Loved it. And the thing I loved about the hotel business was it really is a job that provides a much needed service. It's a place where people go to celebrate, it's a place where people go for meetings and corporate events, it's a place where people go on a romantic vacation. I mean, hotels provide so many great services and it's a hospitality industry. And I was fortunate enough, I started as a director of sales and marketing, was fortunate enough to become a general manager and had uh 150 employees reporting to me. I was very young, I think I was 27 years old when I had that position, and I had an executive team of another 20 people, and I loved every minute of it. I felt valued, needed, important. I had purpose, and then I became a mom. So my purpose changed. And anyway, ended up leaving the hotel business, becoming a stay-at-home mom, which was awesome, and eventually opened my own restaurant, had real had a real estate career, started the podcast, and now I'm, you know, it's it's constantly reinventing myself. I feel like that's what I've done throughout my life. It's kind of a theme. The the tie-in, though, I think, is that every one of my industries, rather, is about connecting and serving, right? And so I stopped asking, what do I do? And started asking, who do I help? And when I started, well, every single one of these careers is about helping people. Hotels is hospitality, restaurant is hospitality, real estate is helping people find their dream home or helping people sell their home, right? So, and now the podcast is hopefully about imparting information, talking to people that are interesting and informative. And the podcast has been a real passion project of mine. It isn't one where I'm worried about how much money I make because frankly, I don't make any money doing this. Um, the podcast is about who's gonna listen and who am I gonna help with my story and what are my guests going to teach me, which is so amazing. That my favorite thing is learning from the people that have been on the show. And I've had over 75 episodes now, and I can tell you every single one of them has a story that needed to be told. And I was so proud to be the one to be able to tell the help them tell their story, and so honored to give them the space where they felt safe to tell their story. So the podcast has been a definitely a passion project, and so now I'm constantly looking for guests. If you want to be a guest, please reach out. Guests who want to share and also have that same sense of purpose. So now it's more about, you know, I feel like you spend your whole life building your finances right, building your bank account. And now it's about building my legacy because my girlfriend keeps reminding me, okay, now we're 60, and we probably have, if we're lucky, 20 good years left. 20. Think about that. And I and what I mean by that is we may live to be 100, but 20 good years of maybe of health, 20 good years of being able to hike a mountain or play with the grandkids, or we only have like 20 good years left. And so, you know, you have to really think about who do you want to surround yourself with, who do you want to spend time with, you know, what do you want to do with those days? It's so precious. You can't take it for granted anymore. You never should, but you especially can't now. So, anyway, let's now go talk about, we'll talk about lesson number six, which is financial about financial wellness. So, money is a tool, not a measure of worth. So, let's talk about risk taking entrepreneurship. We detach identity from income. Wealth isn't just what you earn, it's what you're free to choose. So, risk taking. I remember I'm gonna tell you a little story. I had a friend once who said, Geez, I wish I could be more like you. And this was after my divorce, and I had decided to open a restaurant, which was insane because frankly, I didn't have any money to open a restaurant, really didn't have any experience opening a restaurant. So when I did it, of course, I rent a space that's 4,100 square feet, which is a lot of room, like that's a hundred seats, the lot. And for your first restaurant, that's a big undertaking, but I didn't know what I didn't know, so that's good. I mean, I was pretty naive. I really didn't know what I was getting into. So um, anyway, and then I start looking for people to finance this project, and nobody wants to invest in a restaurant because again, little did I know, 95% of all restaurants fail within the first three years. So no bank wants to take that risk. And finally, you know, I had a small amount of money from a 401k that I had gotten from my divorce and learned that I could borrow against that and take a loan out against myself, which I did. And then because I did that, I had a small local bank who was also willing to give me a small loan to cover my equipment. Anyway, great, a restaurant launches, and my girlfriend says, you know, I wish I were more like you. And I was like, What are you talking about? And she goes, You are so willing to take risks, and you just jump in and You try it, you're not afraid of failure. And I said, you know, you're probably right. I'm really not afraid of failure. I'm more afraid of not trying. I'm more afraid of looking back on my life and saying, What if? And my why for doing it was so huge at the time. So, like I said, I had just gone through a divorce. And you have to understand, so I was a stay-at-home mom. I put my kids to bed every night. I read them bedtime stories every night. I was so lucky. Going through a divorce meant I was only going to see my kids half the time. And we made we had an arrangement where I would have the kids one week and my ex-husband would have the kids the other week. And that broke my heart. It broke my heart that I was not able to be there for them. When they got off the bus, when they, you know, were tucked into bed, I couldn't be there. And it was such a hard transition for me that I cried myself to sleep every night when they weren't there. So I went, I decided, you know what, I went back to had to go back to work and ended up working at a car dealership. Well, anybody that knows anything about the car business knows they work you like a dog. And you are working, you know, till eight o'clock at night on Friday nights. You're working every Saturday. You do not have weekends off. You have to be there when the customers are there, and you have to make a certain quota every month. And if you don't, you've got one foot out the door. That's how most car dealerships operate. So I ended up working for a Mercedes dealership and did very well at it, but I was working 50 hours a week. So back to when the weeks that I had my children, I'm working 50 hours a week. So now I'm not seeing the kids every other week because they're with their dad. And then when I do have them, I'm still not seeing them because I'm working ridiculous hours and thought, you know, my heart is breaking and I cannot live like this. So I need to create a better life for myself, one that offers me some flexibility in my hours and some more independence so that I can be where I need to be, which is with my kids. So I ended up finding the space that used to be a restaurant and deciding I'm going to run my own show, run my own restaurant, jump, jump off, take a leap of faith and jump off this deep end and dive in and do something I've never done before because that will allow me the flexibility I need to be with my children during the time when both of us need each other. So I took a leap of faith. Fortunately, it worked out. Had a great support team that helped me get things launched and get it off the ground. I hired people that knew more than I did and took my ego out of it and ended up hiring a dining room manager who knew how to set up a floor plan. I hired a bar manager who set up my bar. I hired a chef who ran my kitchen. Um, and then every other week when I had my kids, they ran the show and I was home, able to get them off the bus at two in the afternoon and then spend my time with them. And everybody at the restaurant knew don't call me unless it's an emergency because I am mom every other week. I will give you all of my time on the other weeks. I will be there on my off weeks. And I was, I worked unbelievable hours, but they knew where my priority was, and I created it. So I was so proud of that, and it lasted for eight years. It lasted until my daughter graduated from high school, which is what I needed it to do for me. I never made a lot of money there, but it gave me enough to give me the freedom and flexibility I wanted and enough money to pay my mortgage, which yeah, I before I was literally facing foreclosure. I was three months behind in my mortgage. I mean, there's so much that I went through that I have not covered, but I will tell you, it was a difficult time. But I chose freedom over finances back then, and I would do it all again because I needed that time with my kids. Anyway, money is a tool, right? That's what I started with. It's a tool. And I believe strongly in entrepreneurship and taking risks because you need to control your own time. You need to have the freedom to do what you want. And if you live, if you work for someone else, you will never ever have that freedom, ever. So if you are able to work for yourself, create your create your own schedule, create your own job, whatever it is, I highly encourage you to give it a shot. Number seven is about spiritual wellness. So, lesson number seven, I've learned there's something bigger than you, even in your hardest moments. So, some of the worst moments of my life shaped the best parts of me. I will tell you, other than the loss of my father, the second worst moment of my life was the day that I got the call from my ex-husband that my daughter was in the hospital and she was diagnosed with a spinal stroke at age 12. So we'll talk about spiritual wellness. I have never been an overly religious person. However, I've always had a strong faith. So I have always considered myself spiritual. In the moment when my daughter was paralyzed from the neck down and facing a diagnosis of death, frankly, um, I'm not going to put it lightly. I was told by the doctor that she would not make it through the night without being put on life support. And just a few hours before that diagnosis, she was running track. She was one of the fastest runners in the state. So I was in a state of shock and looked at the doctor and said, that's not possible. That can't be my daughter. She is an all-around athlete, healthy, never even had an ear infection. There's no possible way that you're telling me that she is not going to live through the night unless I put her on life support and have her intubated. Well, anyway, fast forward, in fact, she had a spinal stroke. She was intubated after we transferred her to Boston. And you want to say everything in me, it shook my faith in every possible way. I remember going to the chapel at the end of the hall on this ICU unit after my daughter was put on life support and was struggling to, well, she couldn't breathe on her own. So the area of her spine that was impacted was the area that controls your diaphragm. So she could not breathe on her own. There was no other choice except to put her on life support. Now, again, give you some more backstory. My experience with life support was that both of my grandparents were put on life support, and neither one of them ever came off life support. They both, when they were taken off, they passed. So my whole thought was once you're on life support, you're never coming off. You're going to die. So I remember going to the end of the hall in the chapel and just pleading, begging, crying, screaming with God to not take her from me because after my divorce, I felt like she was all I had. And so if that had been taken from me, I don't know how I would have survived that. I guess I would have, people do. But the pain in that moment was excruciating as a parent. And so, and the fear, oh my gosh, the fear and the fact that you realize that you have to now put your trust in God, the universe, whatever you believe in. Mostly you put your trust in the doctors that are now caring for your child because you have zero control. You have zero control in the outcome. But the people that have you've surrounded yourself with, you are praying that they have the ability to make your child okay. And so that shook my faith tremendously. However, by some miracle, she recovered and fast forward six years, ended up going to Harvard. Four years later, graduated from Harvard, and now is looking at law school. She still has some physical deficits and some paralysis, but she's with us and she's doing amazing. So that definitely gave me, you know, faith in that she's meant to do big things, and yeah, and things were out of our control. And so we really had to put our faith in something greater, and it came through. I prayed, and I know there were prayer circles around the globe for her. I got gained um some national attention because this is such a rare thing to have happen, especially to somebody so young. Anyway, spirituality, very important. Lesson number eight is an environmental wellness. So your environment either drains you or expands you. So what I talk about there is really the people you surround yourself with. And I like this quote: you don't just find your people, you build your table. And I this one took me a long time to learn because I was trying really hard to be inclusive, really trying to be kind to everyone, trusting people I probably shouldn't have trusted. So, you know, I really wanted to be everybody's friend. And now I've realized that's not possible. And you really have to be intentional about the people that you let into your circle. So, you know, when you're younger, you really, I feel like you can't choose as much because let's face it, when you're in school, you're surrounded by the same kids you went to kindergarten with if you don't move, right? You grow up through the 12 years or however many years it is with the same group of people. And you don't really get to choose who your friends are. Well, you I mean, you do, but you everyone gets into their their little clicks. I feel like in school, you're either an athlete or you play in the band, or maybe you're in theater, or maybe you don't fit in any of those groups and you turn to drugs and you're you're hanging out with what I used to, we used to call the burnouts, right? So you have all these little subgroups, but it's really not until later in life when you are able to say, all right, this is who I am, and these are the people I want to surround myself with. So for me, for example, I like to surround myself with people that elevate me, that challenge me, that celebrate me, that can cry with me. I mean, gosh, when you have a bad day, like that's when you really need your people, right? When you are just like, oh my God, life sucks. You know, I'm not doing really well today. And I just want to be able to vent. Like I find that there are people that want to be around me when I'm fun or, you know, I'm the party girl and want to have a good time. But when I'm really bummed out and really having a rough time, it's like, who are the people you can turn to? Because those same people that want to be your social friends that are like to have a good time with you, they don't want to be brought down by your problems oftentimes. So I want people around me that are with me in the highs and lows, right? I want, I want people that are that understand that, you know, life sometimes isn't great. And so I want to be able to be authentic and real about that. There are times when, you know, maybe I'm struggling with, maybe I'm having a problem with my husband. Maybe we're not getting along this week. Maybe I just need to vent. Maybe I just want, I don't want you to fix it for me. I just want you to hear me, right? I just want to be heard, I want to be seen. I'm frustrated. Maybe I want you to say, hey, it's you. Maybe, maybe I want a friend who can call me out sometimes, right? But I need more than that friend that's just like, hey, let's have a good time, let's go have a drink. Like that is so what's the word I want? A little bit shallow. I don't know. I just really like to go deep with people. I want someone that at the end of my life, when something big happens, they've got my back. Or if someone's talking about me, that they're gonna stand up for me and know me so well that they're gonna say, you know what, Sharon wouldn't do that. That's not who she is. Or if she did, there must be some misunderstanding, or talk it through with her, right? Like be grown-ups. Those are the people I want sitting at my table. I don't want people that are one way to my face that are really friendly, and that turn around and they're talking shit about me behind my back. Like, I don't have time for that. I just don't have time for that. I never did. I don't like drama, I don't want to get mixed up in that. So, environmental wellness for me is about who are the people you want to surround yourself with? Who are the room, what are the rooms you want to be in? What kind of energy do you want to be around? You know, what kind of energy do you want to be giving out? All of that is so important. Like pick your people. Pick your people. I can't even, it's gonna make it just makes it makes you a better person, especially when you put, I I love being with people that know more than me, that are smarter than me. Oh my gosh, it just energizes me in such a big way. So, again, another reason I love this podcast because I'm usually around people that are experts in their field, that are just brilliant, that bring so much to the table. They just fill my life with so much joy, and that's where Joy of the Hang comes in. It's the joy of hanging out with these incredible people that it's just anyway. I hope you felt that way too, because I just love it. So, final reflection. Here's what I know at 60. Life is not about perfection, it is 100% about connection and leaving a legacy behind. It's about the conversations you almost didn't have, the risks you almost didn't take, the people you almost didn't let in. Because in the end, it's not about how successful you were. It's about how deeply you lived and how well you loved. So if you're listening to this, don't wait, don't wait to reach out, don't wait to forgive, don't wait to start over, don't wait to build your life around what actually matters. Because we are born to bond, built to belong. And if there's one thing 60 years has taught me, the joy is in the hang. Nothing else matters. So today, if you want to give me a gift, please reach out to somebody that you haven't talked to in a while. Maybe call somebody, have lunch, hang out with somebody important or special, or somebody that once meant something to you, and leave a comment. Tell me how much the podcast has meant to you in the last year and share it with a friend. Nothing helps me more than helping to build this audience and getting my message out to more people. So the more you share, the more impactful we all can be. And that will be the greatest gift of all. So this has been Joy the Hang, and I hope to see you again next time. Thank you, everyone.