Are you a member of the sandwich generation – squeezed between raising children and caregiving responsibilities for your parents, in-laws, or other aging loved ones? Are you in a power struggle with your siblings? Are their often opposing objectives and/or philosophies of care for your senior parents creating conflict and bringing progress to a standstill? Are elder care issues such as driving, finances, maintaining their home, moving into an assisted living community or nursing home, Alzheimers or dementia, etc. costing you time, money, relationships, and peace of mind? Are you struggling to balance work and elder care and feeling you're losing control of both? Listen to this interview with Barbara Friesner, of Agewiseliving.com for the answers to these and other questions about caregiving.

BARBARA E. FRIESNER, author of The Ultimate Caregiver's Survival Guide, is an expert on issues affecting Seniors and their families. Barbara has been featured on NY1 TV's "Focus on Seniors", "Coping With Caregiving" and on radio shows across the country.

In addition to her FREE monthly newsletter, Barbara is the Eldercare Expert and writes a monthly column for the National Association of Baby Boomer Women. In addition, Barbara has been quoted in newspapers and magazines throughout the US.

Friendship and wisdom are two of the saving virtues of the Third Age. Friendship is a special kind of love that endures the winter of loss, fills the spaces of our heart and makes so many moments special. And wisdom allows us to carry the nourishing cup of understanding to the thirsty mouths of the world as well as our selves. Today’s show is about both: friendship and wisdom. The friendship is between Mike Farrell, famous for his role in Mash, and his friend, author John O’Donohue, who unexpectedly passed away recently. The wisdom is in a book by John called To Bless the Space Between Us.

Mike Farrell is best known for his eight years on M*A*S*H and five seasons on Providence. He is also a writer, director, producer, and author of Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist. Mike joins us to talk about the new book, To Bless the Space Between Us, written by his dear friend, the late John O’Donohue. O’Donohuepassed away suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 52 – just two months before To Bless the Space Between Us was released.

What does it mean to bless others and ourselves? In this collection of O'Donohue's poetic prayers, the author of Beauty and Anam Cara focuses on bringing God's blessings into the liminal spaces in our lives: times of transition, grieving, change or preparation for the unknown. Some of the blessings are for specific situations that are bread-and-butter staples of other prayer books, such as benedictions over births, weddings, new jobs or new homes. Others are unexpected and bravely dark, including a prayer for the loved ones left behind after a suicide, or for a parent after the death of a child. O'Donohue is not afraid to tackle the fear and guilt that many harbor secretly, bringing shame and addiction out into the open even while celebrating new life and new love. His writing is sensitive and deep: As light departs to let the earth be one with night, Silence deepens in the mind, and thoughts grow slow; The basket of twilight brims over with colors, he says of evening Vespers. The book closes with the Irish priest's personal—and often profound—musings on the act of blessing, drawing on Celtic spirituality and the wisdom of poets and philosophers.

No one can say the relationship between Third Agers and their adult children is always easy. Our guest, author Jane Isay says, “It is no easier being the parent to an adult child than it was raising children at any other stage of growth.” How do we nourish good a relationship with our adult children? What do they complain about? Do they love and appreciate us? Jane Isay, author of Walking on Eggshells: Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents, gives us a roadmap to enrich this often difficult relationship.

Jane Isay grew up in New York City, the daughter of a columnist for the New York Post and a psychiatrist. She worked at the Yale University Press, creating their lists in psychiatry, psychology, and child development. In 1979 she moved to Basic Books, and for the next 25 years she was an executive at a number of publishing houses. In 2004 she left her job as Editor-in-Chief at Harcourt Trade Books to embark on a new career as a writer. Walking on Eggshells: Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents is the result. Some of the questions she tackles in the episode of Aging Gratefully are:

1.) How can one close the communications gap between parents and their grown kids?

2.) How come the decade of the 2000’s can be so tense and disappointing?

3.) Grandchildren and their parents—what are the keys to their kingdom?

4.) What are some of the issues or problems facing a person when marrying into a family with adult children?

5.) What about money and its discontents?

6.) What are the words that welcome and the words that separate?

7.) Why we have to grow into this new stage of parenting, and how to do it?

Many Third Agers are in jobs that no longer satisfy them, and others are facing retirement without enough money to maintain their lifestyle. One solution is to start your own business. The internet is a natural place to market. But how can you combine your spirit and your passion with marketing? Our guests today, Drs. Judith Sherven, and Jim Sniechowski say they are teaching people to do just that – market on the internet from their passion. Judith Sherven is a clinical psychologist who worked in private practice for twenty-two years. Her husband, Jim Sniechowski, holds a doctorate in Human Behavior and co-founded the Men's Health Network in Washington, D.C. They are the bestselling authors of Be Loved for Who You Really Are. Their latest endeavor is “Soft Sell Internet Marketing.”

What they tell us is this: if you're looking for a way to market your products and services online that's in alignment with your heart-based professional values and personal integrity - it's called Soft Sell marketing. What is soft sell marketing?

If someone buys something from you and they expect that the amount of money theypay for it will return to them plus a profit, that's called an ROI – Return on Investment – transaction. This is the way most standard business transactions are designed and understood.

But what if you're a parenting counselor and someone comes to you for advice with their 5 year old. You make a suggestion and it works. Their child is better. And they give you a check. Do they expect the amount of the check to return to them plus a profit? No. That's not the nature of the transaction.

What you've done is changed their life experience. And for that type of transaction we use the term ROE – Return of Experience. Soft Sell marketers specialize in ROE – Return of Experience. And it's for you, the Soft Sell marketer, that Bridging Heart and Marketing is designed and dedicated.

Our bodies are the temples of our souls. In this life we live only as long as they live and we suffer when they suffer and we die when they die. Obviously, we need to take care of our temples. Our guest today is Joan Frentz, author of Life Begins @ 60: Living Longer Stronger Lives. After 60 she went from chronic arthritic and muscular pain to great health and strength and realized “I was healthier and felt better than ever.” How did she do it? Can you become stronger and healthier after 60? What does it take? What are the secrets?

Joan Frentz is a former business owner,volunteer, dancer, and photographer’s model. She’s now a mother and grandmother. On turning 60, Joan realized she was stronger and felt healthier then at any time in her life. How could this be? She had spent years dealing with discomfort, pain from the debilitating affects of arthritis in her spine, neck, hands, and feet. A long process of first getting to know her own body, becoming and staying physically fit through exercise and healthier eating…and at the same time growing mentally stronger through conscious awareness training, including proper breathing and meditation, Joan has transformed what was always an active physical life to one free of pain and need for medication. Exercise may not be the cure-all but it certainly is close. She feels that in these days, women are writing new chapters. With it not only possible but probable to live to be 100 and beyond, what do we need to know and do to ensure a physically active and independent life. Our interview covers:

The major components of an exercise program

Keeping your body healthy

Getting to know your own body

Starting and maintaining an exercise program

Fitness and the foods we eat

Weight control

Aristotle said, "The gods, too, are fond of a joke." Who can doubt the benefit of laughter? The famous writer, Norman Cousins, is said to have cured his cancer with laughter. What does every woman say she is looking for in a man? A good sense of humor. Today’s guest, Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant, author of Don’t Get Mad, Get Funny: A Light-Hearted Approach to Stress Management, believes it is her mission to help the world become saner and healthier through humor.

Jasheway-Bryant has written fifteen books. In 2003, she won the Erma Bombeck Award for Humor Writing, whichprobably explains why shehas laugh lines on her face, her stomach, and oddly, her pancreas. She is a stress management and humor expert, health educator, comedy writer, and stand-up comic.Her mission, if she decides to accept it, is to help the world become healthier and more sane through laughter. Leigh Anneclaims to be the kind of girl who, as Mae West said, “Climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.”

Today we talk to the author of a little book that came out of nowhere to make a big national splash. If you haven’t read it, it’s called “The Sequoia Seed: Remembering the Truth About Who You Are.” The author is Karen Wright, a woman who has had a lot of different careers and lived to tell about them. In her life she’s been many things: an educator, securities broker, TV news reporter, corporate consultant, author, speaker… Her book is about remembering the truth about who you really are. How do you get to the bottom of yourself? How did she do it? Karen tells us which is the real Karen Wright, and why. We all want to know who we really are, unless we’re afraid to risk knowing the truth. Karen’s online magazine – or ezine – along with her workshops and retreats -- helps women to connect to their deepest calling and take a step she calls “Risking mediocrity for greatness.” How can you get ready to take that risk? In the interview we talk about enlightenment and lasting happiness – do they exist? What are they? Do you/can you have them?

Do you remember Queen for a day? Well, our guest on today’s podcast, Donna Henes, suggests in her latest book, The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife, that women in midlife and beyond become their own Queen. Certainly, many woman need to own their own authority and purpose, but what does it mean to become a Queen? Donna will answer this and other questions on women’s issues. She’s also an expert on creating rituals and celebrations for any occasion, not to mention that she’s got a great sense of humor.

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Do you remember Queen for a day? Well, our guest on today’s podcast, Donna Henes, suggests in her latest book, The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife, that w...