What Age Knows

Maybe you’ve seen the “I once was…” reels filmed in nursing homes.

One by one, residents turn over signs revealing what they once did for a living. Some need help holding or turning the sign, but the words appear one after another: Engineer. Registered Nurse. History Professor. CEO. Midwife. Soldier. Surgeon.

Every time I see one, I think about what those few words represent. All that knowledge, capability, and experience. A lifetime’s worth.

I think our culture has lost sight of some of that. We can be quick to assume that innovation and progress have made older knowledge less relevant, and to favour youth and fresh thinking over the wisdom that comes from having lived, worked, struggled, succeeded, failed, adapted, and learned over decades. I think that’s an oversight.

And no, I’m not just saying that because I’m getting older. I’ve been guilty of the same oversight myself, and I want to change that.

Not long ago, Seun, a colleague from our Learning and Development team, was preparing to leave our organization and asked if she could book some time with me. I was happy to connect and assumed she wanted to talk about our work.

Instead, she told me she had researched me and wanted to learn more about my journey and build a connection. She explained that she was from Nigeria and had grown up believing in “sitting at the feet of elders” to listen, learn, and grow. I like that phrase and the imagery that comes with it.

Jess and I have encountered something similar through conversations on the Rooted in Purpose with Jess + Tamara podcast with First Nations Elders from Medicine Wheel Way, including Black Crow and Grandmother Redhawk. There is a deep respect for the wisdom, experience, and teachings that Elders carry, and for the responsibility to listen to and learn from them. I think there's a lot we can learn from that.

It has made me wonder who I may have overlooked in my own life. Who has decades of experience, stories, mistakes, lessons, and wisdom that I could be learning from right now, while they are still here to share it? While they don’t need a sign to tell me who they once were, because they can tell me themselves who they are, what they know, and what life has taught them.

There is so much knowledge walking around among us that will not always be available to us. I want to get better at noticing it. And listening.

And yes, as I’ve written before, I believe just as strongly that I have an enormous amount to learn from people much younger than I am. But that’s a story for another day.

With much left to learn,
Tamara

Creating Space Update

This week, I donated two very full bags of beautiful clothes that no longer serve me, many of them still with tags on, to Timea’s Thrift Boutique, opening in November in support of organizations helping survivors of human trafficking and exploitation, and vulnerable youth.

Hmm. Decluttering with purpose. I wasn’t expecting that.