Every once in a while, an artist’s voice will stop me from scrolling—and Jess Woodland did exactly that. In this session I brought her in to record her song “Too Old To Learn,” and it’s been on repeat for me ever since. The whole thing is built around that honest, uncomfortable fight between anger and tenderness: “The flames getting higher… fighting fire with fire… my knuckles are burned.” It’s raw, it’s human, and it sounds like somebody telling the truth instead of trying to impress you. What hit me hardest is the prayer at the center of it: “I pray I’m not too old… where anger is taught, softness is not.” Jess puts words to what a lot of us carry—being “born with a fist ready to hit,” and still wanting “some hands” and “sweet words.” The line about “asking the flowers in winter to bloom” is the kind of writing that sticks because it’s simple and devastating. If you’ll humble yourself and listen with a quiet spirit, there’s a takeaway here for anybody trying to learn a better way to live before that final breath is drawn from earth.