Some lessons arrive late because younger ears had no category for them.

Some things cannot be received before there is somewhere to put them. Advice about grief, about how quickly time moves, about what a marriage requires, lands as words on a person who has no experience to attach them to. The lesson was not withheld and you were not slow. There was simply no category yet, and understanding waited for the life to build one.

Be patient with yourself about what you have not yet grasped, and patient with younger people who cannot hear you. Say the true thing anyway and let it sit unused. It will be there when the category forms, which is more than they would have had otherwise.