7 life lessons in celebration of my Nan
August is always a special month for me with important family birthdays. Not least it was my Nan’s birthday this week and, as I was thinking about her, I started to recall some of the life lessons I learnt from her, so I felt ‘nudged’ to share them. She died 10 years ago at 96, and her wisdom is holding true for me more and more these days.
Interestingly, I found words popping into my mind all beginning with the letter ‘L’ that seemed to follow a natural flow!
1 Live
When I say live, I mean in the sense that Nan never seemed to get too caught up in her thoughts. She was always too busy living in life rather than in her head.
2 Let go
Whenever I was feeling a bit low, or there was some kind of drama going on in my life (that of course usually felt like the end of the world to me when I was younger..!?), I’d inevitably end up at Nan’s. The first thing she’d do is make me a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich, and rather than getting into any conversation, she’d often suggest I take a nap. Invariably in that letting go of my thinking for a moment, I’d wake up in a much better headspace! I have friends all over now who often say “I’ve got a need for a cuppa and a cheese sandwich” feeling, and I can immediately connect!
3 Lighthearted
Nan’s view on life was a lot less complicated than can so often be the case these days. She somehow saw life in a simpler way and was always very clear on what was important to her – number one being her family! She’d lived through the war, and had her fair share of life’s challenges, and as a result she didn’t really ‘sweat the small stuff’, which gave her a much more ‘lighthearted’ energy that drew people to her.
4 Listen
Nan was a great listener. Rather than asking lots of questions or advising on what I should or shouldn’t do, she’d just stay pretty quiet and wait while I rambled on! These days, be it in my work or personal life, I’ve come to see how important this is, especially when people are experiencing difficult times. It’s so easy to want to fill in the gaps in conversation, or rush to help or fix things for people, and yet just quietly being there, and really listening to someone can make the world of difference.
5 Learn
Learning from listening better is such an intrinsic part of my work these days, and I’m convinced that’s what made Nan so understanding of other people. She was brilliant with younger people in this way…and I’m thinking now of a time when a group of young lads (as she called them) used to hang around the local shop where she used to go. I asked her once if it made her nervous and she just said “Oh no…I always say hello and am polite to them, so they’re always very polite back to me!”
6 Love
Nan had a big heart and she taught me so much about the importance of unconditional love. There’s a long standing joke in my family that whatever I did, or how badly I might have behaved at times, Nan never failed to take my side or back me up! It didn’t matter what was occurring, she was always there for me.
7 Laugh
There are many times I can remember a lot of laughter with Nan, just as long as it wasn’t any jokes about her family! I can picture her now when my sister and I took her home to Ireland for her 90th birthday, and we had a picnic on the beach. Amazingly, when it came to leave we had to climb up a cliff, and half way up, she started laughing about something. So much so that we only just made it to the top before we collapsed in a fit of giggles!
So there we have it, Nan’s 7 life lessons in celebration of her life. I’ve enjoyed writing about them and hope they spark some of your own wisdom too!