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Take these wrinkles and shove it!

Honestly, there’s a rising bowl-full of yeasty dough swelling with things about getting older of which I’m not a fan.

Good God, I have wrinkles spreading from my forehead to my hair-sprouting ears. I’ll just try to think of myself as sexy like Leonard Cohen (without the great voice!)

I’m definitely not a fan of elder sports such as watching my generational cohorts and family members become ill and begin to drop off, especially when I know that this slow rise up the graph will pick up logarithmic pace with each passing year.

Woody Allen … “I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.“

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But, you know, as with just about everything, there is a possible positive for us in aging too.

It’s called grandparenting.

And because I know that many today don’t or won’t have grandkids, let’s add in grand’aunting and grand’uncling, even grand’friending and grand’neighbouring! Cast the circle wide and enjoy the fruits.

Grandparenting caught me by surprise… not the fact that it actually happened, but I’m shocked in discovering how MUCH I adore these little people.

This discovery reminds me of my experience of backpacking in Europe in 1979; I had no expectation of finding it thrilling or life-changing… HA! Turned my world upside down for decades following… and now it’s grandparenting that has me gobsmacked.

It’s an Ode to Joy, seeing a new face welcomed to our world, knowing that this mini-person will likely be walking our ground-space, breathing our expired air, drinking our excreted water… seeing, hearing, smelling us inside their head for decades, maybe even a hundred years or more. It’s an eternal and exciting Circle-of-Life miracle.

I’m a relatively new grandparent… I have 3 grandkids all under the age of 5.

So, 3 of my own children and 3 grandchildren.. could this be what they call “replacement theory”?… *oh no Larry, watch where you go man, that’s a different kettle of fish*

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I love the title of a recently published book I’ve run across in another’s blog… “The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving Our Children’s Children“

Mindfulness is everywhere these days. Mindfulness entered the zeitgeist during the 1990s when Jon Kabat-Zinn chose the term to express a central idea of Buddhism. Mindfulness means “sustained, focused nonjudgmental attentiveness to the here-and-now.”

These words caught me up in thinking about my role as a granddad and my unexpected enjoyment of this new experience and all of its learning moments. To be a cheerleader and non-judgmental. I do love my children’s children.

Playing grandparent for a full day each week has brought me full-force into the world of mindfulness… there is no ignoring a 1 yr old or a 4 yr old who wants your attention… NOW.

And even if they aren’t asking for attention, the opportunities provided to a little one by a non-mindful grandparent can lead to crazy, even occasionally dangerous consequences.

This week my toddler granddaughter and her 4 yr old brother were left alone for a few moments. Within a minute or two, his underwear was off and she was wearing them on her head as a hat! Not dangerous… but crazy?? Absolutely!

One of the big things I really love about grandparenting is reading children’s books to the kids.

To see the look in their eyes, and watch from outside the thoughts and dreams… the swirl of imagination, is as startling as it is powerfully compelling. As a young parent I was likely too tired or overwhelmed by a busy life to notice such big small stuff.

So, if you have a small child in your world, here are a tiny few of my favourite books that I’m reading with my 4 year old and 1.5 year old; our newborn grandson will join this thrilling fraternity in the coming months.

It shouldn’t be surprising, but my very favourites, for the 0-5 age crowd, and mainly because I have a little boy’s scatological mind inside myself, are the absurdly silly Robert Munsch books:

I HAVE TO GO [pee]

MOIRA’S BIRTHDAY

GOOD FAMILIES DON’T [fart]

THOMAS’S SNOWSUIT

or the poignant LOVE YOU FOREVER

BIRDFEEDER BANQUET (author Michael Martchenko)

THE MAGIC HOCKEY SKATES (author Allen Morgan)

Today, you can tell by the furrows across my face that I’ve been around for awhile, but I’m working harder, as a grandparent, to make all of the new crinkles and creases across this mug… SMILE LINES...