The Fourth Generation

What makes me happy in this moment in time is in the knowledge that there are four generations working in unison which is the chief life blessing I focus on.  I am not one for getting googly-eyed in sharing of baby pictures.  For me the arrival of our second grandson earlier today is a moment to reflect on the bigger picture of family and how the natural additions and subtractions of life change life for everyone that is central to my life.

Like our first grandson's arrival three years ago, the entire birthing process was captured as a mobile experience.  That I refuse to accept or use a mobile phone is not me being anti-technology, but because there is a certain air of simplification, where the mobile phone penetration in my family is at +90%.  There is nothing that they get, that I have a wish to receive and not having a phone means, if and when I need one, there are many family members who at any given time will offer up their phone for a brief usage. 

As I visited the hospital today and the actual joy for me is that mother and baby are healthy coming out of the challenging efforts of childbirth.  Typically I am a very private person but the arrival of a new born is great because over the next few weeks, the face will change and it will not be until another couple of months elapse before we know who the new born is becoming and the actual personalities of the child develop.  Until then all of us can enjoy the little fella, while being cognizant of his 3 year old brother, and in that regard my daughter and her hubby have done an absolutely astonishing job as first time parents - and she recognizes the importance of touch, as we gave her space for mother and baby bonding.  Today's age is a far cry from the world all my kids entered into.

There is the mathematics which go through my mind, that when our new grandson turns 21, I will be 3/4's of a century old.  That challenges me to look after myself and enjoy these days in ways that I already have been through - for I made it a big part of my life to place priority over my kids more than I did for my work.   That decision to focus on home is a seed that has added blessings that I know can enjoy as fundamental presence.  To view this child as a human being in their own right, rather than see it as a possession or a share item - equanimity is one of the smart things I learned as a part of my development as a parent, and as a grandparent it is the knowledge that I have not only been blessed to have great kids, but these great kids are themselves are becoming great parents. 

It is nice that I engaged a certain way of family and only found out the label for that parenting afterwards, rather than try to live to an ideology or some theory that is not found in either love or practice - and that term is alloparenting - who knew we as a communal family were alloparents - and this blessing flows into the fourth generation.  A generation that hopefully will be able to come back to this particular moment and know what their grandfather was doing in the moment, my family had its moments.

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