In conversation with Margo Knox

We are delighted to welcome back and talk to a popular Virtual Social Centre (VSC) presenter, Margo Knox – she speaks about journeying into your wisdom which involves developing the inner resources to adapt to ageing instead of denying it.

“I am so grateful to be able to hear and speak about the ageing process as a conscious contributor. Most of my tribe have grey hair and joyfully wear their ageing skin as a badge precious determination to be here and to love, understanding the depth within of real knowledge ageing possesses,” she said.

We decided to sit down and chat to Margo Knox and get more insight into her interesting life and thoughts:

Where did you grow up?

I am a Queenslander, born in Northwest QLD on a sheep station. I was cared for by Indigenous women. They whispered me into their Dreaming.

Moved to the Esk Valley onto a dairy farm, was sent to boarding school in Brisbane. Then Perth where I finished High School.

What are a couple of key events you could share from your life?

In 1978 I was married in an Ashram in Melbourne. Followed by birthing 2 children at home & the third in North Queensland also at home.

What are your greatest achievements?

I trained as a nurse in Western Australia and went on to train in the Welfare field working for Children’s Services for 12 years.

I trained in many aspects of counselling, conflict resolution, children’s development, court procedures, etc. I was later diagnosed with PTSD after an incident and went on to retire from mandatory child protection services.

I have published two books and many articles on mindfulness and ageing.

Of which accomplishments are you the most proud of?

The children and grandchildren are number one!

The teaching and workshops I have run over the last 20 years, on such topics as Forgiveness, Retirement, A Course in Miracles, Trauma, Ageing and the Artists Way.

I changed my life dramatically in 1996, studying in USA for 3 years for a Ministerial Certificate.

I volunteered in New York in the week after 9/11.

I have been a Celebrant at many funerals where the family want to run their own show and not be beholding to funeral directors. I have developed ceremonies that fit the person who has died and
their family. I also have spent time with families who have a loved who wishes to die at home, as an advocate and support person.

I have run Death Cafes and community conversations around end of life, frail age and death & dying.

What do you love to do in your spare time?

Exercise and play games with grand kids, oh and poetry, writing and Netflix.

Anything else you’d like to share Margo?

I like to laugh, give service and be helpful when I can. I do a form of meditation and contemplation daily. Total life saver.

I do long posts on Facebook that relate to insights and other things I enjoy.

I lived in Byron Bay for 7 years where I helped to run The Miracle Centre (a meditation centre).

I built a mud brick house in northern NSW when my children were small.

What is A Journey Into Wisdom about?

It’s about developing and understanding our inner resources to adapt to ageing. This interactive session is about sharing and together taking steps to ensure that this phase of life
is filled with self-discovery and deliberate choices. Envisioning the life we want to live now and how we would like to be remembered. It’s a relief to move to envisioning and creating
a purposeful and joyful last part of our life.

It is expected that around 3 million Baby Boomers will retire from the workforce in the next decade. Life expectancy keeps increasing. After reaching the peak of our careers and our kids having left
home, we have decades of life before us for which our culture offers us little preparation and no model and few role models.

These sessions offer a possible new vision of ageing. Supported by recent brain research, it argues that increased longevity calls for the development of an expanded consciousness and the evolution
of a vital role for elders that no one else can fill; it re-contextualises ageing as the anticipated fulfillment of life, rather than its inevitable decline.

We will use texts and discussion, journalling, contemplation, inquiry and experiential exercises. We will review our past, extracting lessons we’ve learned, to share, and possibly identify unfinished business to be completed. These sessions are heartfelt and safe spaces.