Wisdom and the Open Window: Seniors and Lifelong Learning

"In times of change, ‘learners’ inherit the Earth, while ‘knowers’ find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."  ~ Eric Hoffer

So often when we reach the age where wisdom is supposed to sing us magically to the end of our days, we find instead, the dull monotonous clang of knowing.  Knowing everything. Knowing it all. Knowing there’s nothing else to do or to learn. Friends and family stop asking questions of us because they’ve heard the same answer time and again. The fact is, we’re tired of the same answers too. We wait for luminous insight to inhabit our bodies and we wait and we wait.

Knowing is like a fortress where the mortar and bricks concretize life. Knowing is a closed door; learning is an open window. Lifelong learning asks us to seek the larger parts of ourselves around every corner, invites us into the largest conversations with the world. It can be following a yearning that has been with us all our lives or discovering a sprouting seed in our aging garden that we never knew existed and begs to be tended.

Learning can take the form of meditation, photography, exploring native culture, tending bees, or making friends with your computer. And you won’t find “for seniors only” programming within our calendar.  We have come to understand the richness of what can happen when all generations share and learn together. Learning is what brings us alive and asks us to open to more and more of life’s treasures. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Growing beyond the bounds of our comfort zone means stepping into the light of the unknown, perhaps walking alongside our fears or biases, and always brings us closer to a space of wide open wonder and possibility. It is here, in this space, that wisdom’s whisper sometimes is heard. It’s waiting for all of us. We just need to step to the window and listen.

Tess Wixted

Program Associate

Join us at http://www.royalroads.ca/continuing-studies/