Shara Grove Holistics

We’ve made it round to the final stage of life. We’ve gone through birth and childhood (East), through to our teenage years (South), then adulthood (West) and now we’re an elder. If we take ourselves back a couple thousands of years, imagine how much knowledge an elder would have. Can you? They would be filled with experiences from life, and with those experiences comes lessons they’ve learned, mistakes they’ve made, teachings they had from elders above them. There’s was a generational ladder of the passing down of information and knowledge that didn’t stop until we started to reach the modern age.

I don’t believe elders get the respect they deserve, but I don’t necessarily think the average human is to blame. I think capitalism plays a huge role in this, I don’t believe it started the change in perspective towards elders, but it definitely catapulted us into an age where elders were seen more as a nuisance then people we should look up to.

The rise of the industrial revolution really changed our perspectives of our elders. During this time, they were considered to be useless, a waste of resources and unreliable, a stark contrast to a time where elders were prized for their life experience, guidance, spiritual wisdom and knowledge. Imagine doing the full circle of birth, adolescence and adulthood. Then imagine accumulating all that knowledge, just to reach your oldest years and not have a respectful ear to share everything you have gained from your life with. It doesn’t matter if you’re sharing from a positive perspective (all that you’ve learnt) or from a negative perspective (all of your regrets), if you don’t have a respectful ear to pass down that knowledge to, what change is going to happen?

I don’t know about you, but the elders of my family used to love sharing their stories. Whether it is memorable stories from family times, stories from how they used to live or stories from mistakes they’ve made and lessons they’ve learned. Elders love to share. It’s natural to them, it’s in their bones. We as humans are natural storytellers, and when you’re in your oldest years, there are so many stories to tell, purely because you’ve pretty much done the full circle. You’ve accumulated so much from your life, and now that you’re in a stage of life where living isn’t as easy or as possible as what it used to be, so what else can you do to contribute? Share your wisdom. Share your stories. Share your knowledge and guidance. Humans are community creatures, so how else can an elder contribute to a community when they can’t move as quickly, hear as intently or see as clearly as they used to? They share through their voice. They share all that they’ve learnt so the future generations don’t make the same mistakes or so they can stay on their rightful path.

We’ve lost our connection to our elders. As we’ve lost our connection, we’ve lost our respect for them. Our communities became bigger and with that we lost our community feel. Our time became more stretched and strenuous leaving our priorities and lives scattered.

As humanity has grown away from our natural state of being, we’ve become distanced from our elders and the knowledge they have to give. I can’t help but believe this has played a role in the scattered, dissociated and reckless youths we see today. Generations and generations have passed, where elders knowledge was shamed, shunned or mocked because as a collective, our society grew quicker than our human minds and bodies could comprehend.

When we look back at belief systems thousands of years ago, yes in some instances elders were pushed away or out of tribes and groups due to their age, but that wasn’t the majority. The majority of elders were not only prized for their knowledge, but for their respect towards death. For life follows death (the circle of life).

The concept of reincarnation has been around for thousands and thousands of years, meaning it was basically common knowledge at one point. As humanity has grown, we’ve once again been shamed, shunned and mocked for believing in such a thing. We’ve been conditioned to believe in heaven and hell or in some cases believe that once you’re dead you’re dead. But lets look at this, being an elder and knowing that your death doesn’t bring eternal death just physical, how calming would that be? For yourself but for others also and imagine passing that knowledge and energy on.

I can’t help but see and hear so many adults and those that are younger, fear death and I blame the rise of Christianity for this. I at point in my life did fear getting older and my death. I feared when, how and where I would go afterwards. It wasn’t until I started to expand my spiritual knowledge and explore different concepts around death, where I really found comfort in dying. I can happily say that I no longer fear my death, whenever and however it may happen, but I welcome it because with what I believe, death is one tiny, tiny fragment in my souls entire eternal journey. But if I hadn’t have done my own research and explorations, I wouldn’t have reach this mentality. And it just makes me think if there is a link between the elders knowledge of the life-death cycle thousands of years ago, in comparison to elders knowledge of the life-death cycle now after the rise of religious beliefs and conditioning. There’s just something inside of me that says there is a link, which is why we have a rise of people fearing death, trying their hardest to avoid it or postpone it, trying to relive their youths or falling into the pit of depression when death is even brought up.

It’s tricky because we are now in this stage where our elders have been left behind. The farce that was covid jumped youths and adults forward into this technical age, leaving our elders behind. Leaving them excluded, exiled and laying the foundation of this ‘they are useless’ belief. It’s basically the industrial revolution again but in modern times.

I know I try my hardest to allow my grandma the space to tell me her stories (no matter how many times she’s told me them), and when it happens I can’t help but wander sometimes, how much knowledge has been lost because of the direction we’ve been pushed in society and the mentalities we have towards our elders? Honestly, part of me doesn’t even want to think about the answer because I believe it is a vast amount and all for the wrong, corrupt reasons.

Our elders are living in a society that they aren’t built for. I believe the best way we can respect them is by allowing them the time and space to share their stories and to ask them for advice, even if you don’t necessarily want it from them, because you never know, their advice might shock you (or make you laugh).