I still remember my grandmother’s kitchen: the smell of garlic in hot oil, the soft hum of the radio, and her voice cutting through the noise with some line of wisdom I didn’t fully understand at the time.
Back then, I used to roll my eyes at her sayings. “You’ll understand when you’re older,” she’d tell me. And like most things in life, she was right.
Now that I’m in my fifties, raising grown sons and learning to slow down a little, I find those lessons coming back to me in ways I never expected.
Here are eight of those old sayings that still quietly shape the way we live and parent today.
1. Gratitude changes everything
As a kid, I thought “count your blessings” was just a polite way to stop complaining. But the older I get, the more I see how powerful it really is.
Gratitude goes beyond a feel-good idea. It serves as a grounding practice that keeps you steady when life feels uncertain.
Research shows that “gratitude has been linked to lower levels of stress and depression, improved sleep, and a stronger immune system”
When I started writing a short gratitude list every night, my mood shifted. Small frustrations didn’t sting as much, and good moments seemed to multiply.
Our grandparents didn’t have gratitude journals or self-help podcasts, but they had perspective.
They had lived through enough hard times to understand that being thankful, even for the smallest things, was how you stayed steady inside.
2. Take care of yourself before you take care of others
I can still hear my grandfather saying this when someone tried to do too much. Back then, I thought he was just being lazy. Now I realize he was talking about balance.
Many of us grew up believing that selflessness is the highest virtue. But I’ve learned that exhaustion doesn’t serve anyone.
As I read Rudá Iandê’s Laughing in the Face of Chaos recently, one line stood out to me:
“The greatest gift we can give to ourselves and to each other is the gift of our own wholeness, the gift of our own radiant, unbridled humanity.”
The book reminded me that real self-care is an act of integrity. When we nurture our well-being, we bring our best energy to the people we love.
3. Look deeper than what’s on the surface
We live in a world obsessed with appearances. From curated feeds to carefully worded bios, everyone seems to be performing some version of themselves.
My grandmother never had social media, but she had a gift for reading people.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” she’d say whenever I was quick to assume. And she was right. The people who seem the strongest are often carrying the heaviest loads.
Maya Angelou captured this truth perfectly: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”.
That quote has guided me through friendships, work relationships, and even parenting.
Real understanding begins when we look beyond appearances and start listening to people’s actions, not just their words.
4. A little play keeps you young
When my grandmother told us to “go outside and play,” I thought she just wanted some peace and quiet. But she knew something important about keeping joy alive.
Now, whenever I’m gardening, walking the dog, or dancing around the kitchen while cooking, I feel that same sense of lightness she was teaching us to protect.
It reminds me that playfulness belongs to everyone, no matter their age.
George Bernard Shaw once said, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”.
That line always makes me smile because it explains so much. Joy may seem like a luxury, but it’s actually the fuel that keeps everything else moving.
5. Listen more, talk less
Growing up, I was always eager to be heard. But my grandfather was quiet, patient, and attentive. He once told me, “You learn nothing new when you’re the one talking.”
It took me years to understand that listening is its own form of wisdom. It’s how you make people feel seen, and it’s how you discover what’s really going on beneath the surface.
Now, when I’m tempted to fill every silence, I remember how he used to simply sit and listen, nodding in that slow, thoughtful way of his.
Sometimes the kindest thing you can offer someone goes beyond advice. It’s giving them your full, quiet attention.
6. Be kind, but keep your boundaries
My grandmother was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known, but she also had a backbone of steel.
Whenever someone tried to take advantage of her, she’d shake her head and say, “You can be nice without being naive.”
That’s a lesson I keep learning as an adult. Real kindness doesn’t mean saying yes to everything or letting others cross your limits. It means offering compassion without losing your self-respect.
The older I get, the more I realize that boundaries aren’t walls, they’re doors that help love flow in both directions.
Our grandparents understood that without needing to read a single self-help book.
7. Everything happens for a reason (even when it doesn’t feel like it)
This was my grandmother’s favorite line during hard times. As a teenager, I’d roll my eyes when she said it. It sounded too simple for the pain I felt.
But now, after living through loss, failure, and unexpected detours, I understand what she meant.
She wasn’t saying that pain is good or deserved. She was saying that meaning can come from anything if you’re willing to look for it.
Sometimes the reason doesn’t reveal itself right away. It shows up in hindsight, when you realize that what broke you also built something stronger in its place.
Our grandparents were natural philosophers, they just spoke in plain language.
8. This too shall pass
If there’s one phrase that has carried me through sleepless nights, it’s this one.
My grandmother said it when she lost her husband. My mom said it when I went through heartbreak. And now I find myself saying it to my sons when life gets hard.
Time softens what feels unbearable. Seasons change, hearts mend, and somehow, we keep going.
Our grandparents knew this truth deeply because they’d lived through it.
I like to think that phrase wasn’t just about patience—it was about faith in the human spirit.
They trusted that tough times would ease eventually, and that even difficult seasons could bring small moments of grace.
Final thoughts
The older I get, the more I realize that wisdom doesn’t always come from experts or research studies.
Sometimes it comes from the people who sat on porches, stirred soup on the stove, and lived long enough to see what really matters.
Our grandparents’ advice wasn’t complicated, but it was true.
Be grateful. Take care of yourself. Listen. Be kind. Keep going. And above all, remember that life is both fragile and resilient.
Maybe that’s the lesson they wanted us to carry forward—to live gently, laugh often, and pass their quiet wisdom to the next generation.
