A Gardening Lesson
I have recently got into gardening…well, I say that, what I mean is that I recently moved into a house that needs a lot of work doing on the garden.
The bad news is that I have little idea how to improve or really even maintain a garden. The good news is that my daughter and her partner do.
This means I have been spending my weekends being told by a women (nothing changes there then) who I helped to raise, which plants to remove because they are weeds and which mounds of dirt…sorry “soil”…need moving from one end of the garden to the other.
Now, I am perfectly happy to admit my ignorance and ask for help/guidance when required. I am equally happy to be used for heavy lifting to get the job done.
What I’m really enjoying, and I’m more than a little surprised about it, is how much there is to learn about the whole process.
I have always enjoyed learning new things, whether random bits of trivia or the various functions of the inner workings of a new gadget.
A lot of people enjoy learning new things, but struggle with admitting their ignorance for fear of losing respect or can’t do so with someone who is younger than themselves or who they see as less generally informed.
And I won’t say that I’ve always been able to do so gracefully, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to two conclusions:
- Being able to admit ignorance can be seen as admirable, and
- It doesn’t matter who you learn from, provided the information is solid.
Every day I speak to people who have many different experiences to me that I would be a fool not to see these interactions as chances to learn new things, regardless of how old the person is or how many qualifications they have (or not as the case may be).
Take my gardening lessons. It could be easy to dismiss the knowledge of my daughter solely because I remember her having a strop over not being able to stay up late on a school night when she was 12.
But I’d be the one losing out.
So instead, I do as I’m told, asking questions where I don’t understand, and being proud as punch over her understanding of this world that has been a mystery to me for so many years.
If I was young enough to be using hashtags this one would certainly be #NeverTooOldToLearn (I might even us a smiley face to emphasise my delight :-)
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