In Search of Something Green

A Celebration of Grandparents who through magical moments help our children overcome fears and move forward with confidence.

Recently my dear friend Diana announced that she was blessed with a grand-gift, her grandson, Matthew. I respond to the announcement: AND your grandson has been gifted with you, Bob and his other grandparents. It takes a village to raise children, especially in these challenging times when life moves with such speed, intensity, and distractibility it is essential that our children are able to anchor into foundations of wisdom, calm, and refuge while safely being encouraged and provoked to stretch beyond their limits.

In our family, our grandparents and great-grandparents were invaluable in raising the clan. Much of our sharing time was during vacation time at the chalet north of Montreal. Here my grandfather, father, brother and extended family members completed the interior of the contracted exterior. It became a refuge for everyone to kick back, relax, share and celebrate. All the grandsons have great memories of times playing by lakeside, campfires, nature adventures, family reunions and overall life off of our fast-track daily routine.

It was here that our youngest Andrew, the fearless fish would plop into the lake while our eldest son Matthew, frustrated watching his brother, overcame his fear to jump and dive off the dock, thanks greatly to my father’s encouragement and guidance. My mom would be the ‘hostess with the mostest’ giving us all a break preparing meals and keeping the place tidy while we relaxed. It was during this time, my parents were bestowed the nicknames of Grandpoobee (we teased my dad that he was like Fred Flintstone with all of his wild ideas) and much to my mom’s chagrin, Nanabanana (this was not fitting to her Chanel taste). The story slowly evolved as I marvelled at the support and wanted to capture the sacredness of this place and the role of grandparents.

My webmaster, Scott, who is the same age as Andrew, our youngest son, fondly shared some of his experiences with his grandparents. He reflected how the unconditional love, patience and acceptance from them have been gifts and refuge of anchoring friendship.

So blessings to all grandparents! It is with gratitude that we celebrate the gifts that they bring to raising our children.

Dig Deeper

Financial support available for grandparents raising grandkids:

Grandparent and grandchild activities:

Books about Grandparents:

It is with these thoughts in mind that I again repeat my challenge to all of you to consider the following: 

Today there is increasing reservation to engage with various social media platforms due to an infringement of privacy, yet people want to be able to share their personal stories with selected family and friends. Why not consider establishing your own website or grandparents sponsoring a family website where family members can each have a page? Private sharing with added creativity! A family (tribal) collection/story. It might even include family genealogy. Are there critical pearls of wisdom, memories, mantras, recipes, etc. from your elders that you and your family want to be saved, cherished, kept organized and passed down? We all know the frustration of going through the ‘archives and treasures’ after a loved one’s passing and only having part of the history.