Grandparenting

Having just found out that I am going to be a grandparent once again, I can’t help but think about how blessed I am to have more than a handful of grandchildren to love. Of course, I am happy for my children who have dared to embrace parenthood in these both exciting and challenging times.

These are the times you look so forward to in the lives of your children. They’ve grown up, and of all those times when you’ve been blessed to tears, so happy and proud for their amazing accomplishments, this is the best, creating life, and doing their best to give birth and love a divine being to adulthood.

What an incredible opportunity for your children, their children, and those of us who are honored with the title of grandparent. I love these little cherubs so much, and to be able to watch them grow and interject the occasional kernel of truth, supporting and encouraging them to dream and never lose the expectation their dreams could come true.

As a grandparent, my relationship is unencumbered by the day to day responsibilities of direct parenting, so my time spent with my grandchildren is a celebration life and liberty.

I have friends who are not grandparents, and they do not know the blessings that come with grandparenting. For those of us who share the grandparental vocation, we enjoy all the benefits of grandparenting.

It’s not just having a relationship with and participating in the lives of our grandchildren which we get to enjoy. No, there are so many more advantages to being able to express love via the grandparenting connection.

Being an active, loving and supportive grandparent helps to maintain the frequency of love vibration in your body, which ramps up your immune system, keeps you looking younger than your peers, and increases your life expectancy.

Grandparents who are engaged in the lives of their grandchildren are more prone to optimism, happiness, and a higher quality of life. And it’s not all about you, the lives of grandchildren are also greatly enhanced by having active grandmothers and/or grandfathers.

Grandparents who are unable to participate in the lives of their grandchildren, suffer from reduced immune systems, are more likely to fall victim to depression, sickness, disease, and reduced life expectancy.

In contemporary society, opportunities for active grandparenting are in recession. The breaking up of the family structure is more commonplace, as children are leaving the nest and moving away, making maintaining a connection more difficult.

Not to mention the increasing popularity of divorce, or the growing popularity of couples not to marry at all, which means our children may never experience the benefits of being happily married, all among the myriad changes in our societal structure which makes maintaining a grandparental relation more difficult.

If you’re a grandparent and you’ve played a non-active role in the life of a grandchild, know this: It’s never too late to reach out and develop the grandparenting connection your grandchild longs for, and you desire, as it is an intrinsic key component in the successful life experience of those of us who share the human condition.

Thankfully, technology has advanced to a point where it can help to bridge the gap of separation due to geography or emotional disconnection.

Your grandchild needs you, just as much (if not more) than you need him or her.

We can be there for our grandchildren, help them to live better lives, prevent the decline of family relationships, and in doing so help to make the world a better place.

If you don’t have a grandchild, you can achieve the same results by adopting the role of a surrogate grandparent to the child of a niece, nephew, or grandchild of a friend, or other relatives.

Congratulations, and heartfelt gratitude to my baby, who’s bringing another into the world.

Joyful tears…

Love is the Best Thing

I’ve been loving with my whole heart long as I can remember. But just because you love someone doesn’t mean they are receiving it. That wherein lies the rub.

Loving is about as private and intimate emotion you can have, and as much as you love someone, the target of your affection may not have a clue how much you loved him or her.

If you think about that most pure moment of love when you’re holding and looking into the eyes of your newborn baby. There is no more pure moment of love’s welling up inside you at that moment. But though your baby senses your love, this little guy or gal has no clue.

Get used to this idea because you’re going to see it throughout your whole life. In most cases, it starts with your parents. If they had ANY IDEA how much you loved and adored them so much… Well, they don’t have any idea.

Then there’s your first best friend… I mean, really. Of course, you restrained yourself from using the word, “love,” as an expression of how you felt, but you know, deep inside, it was love, and he or she never knew how much he/she meant to you. Never.

And we’re just getting started.

There are your teachers; not all of them, mind you, but those few that have no idea how much they meant to you, impacted or changed your life in the most meaningful ways.

Followed by more friends, mentors, leaders, co-workers, and fringe people (I mean if could include anyone in the fringe areas of your life, like a service worker, store clerk, celebrities, or other folks) who would never know how much you love them. Even pets or other fauna or flora may never know your great love for them.

Not to mention romantic partners. At least in the romantic sense, it is considered acceptable to exchange your love openly with each other. And no matter how you try, even this person, whom you give all your love and devotion to with a reasonable expectation of a little somethin-somethin’ in return, still has no clue.

Even when empowered to share your deepest feelings of love with another, it’s nearly impossible to even come close to hint to the depth of your love, for it’s all next to impossible for anyone but you to know the expansiveness if your love.

Then there are your kids.

You love them so much. Everything they do is a miracle that brings a tear to your eye (maybe streams of sobbing love and prideful admiration) from that first step and the big potty to the Mother’s Day tea and the school play to prom and graduation and everything in between. It’s a non-stop tearful love fest, and it never stops.

There is no more amazing moment than seeing your son or daughter (or someone else that you love so much, could be the next generation of grandchildren or your friend’s accolades, or their sons and daughters doing well).

They just keep doing more things that couldn’t amaze you more, or make you more proud… They get higher education, find the love of their lives, their passion and purpose in life… and then…

“Baby fingers” by mrgreen09

They experience that resonance when they look into their own (or someone else’s) newborn’s eyes and that little guy or gal looks into their eyes with such amazement as those little fingers grasp your index finger, in that moment, the whole world stops.

And they know…

There is this incredible capacity that they have in their heart. It’s always been there, but maybe they’ve been too busy to notice it. Yet, at this one point in time and space, there is a love so unsurpassed, it could not have been imagined, until now.

And it’s only just beginning…

See you at the Soulmate Wizardry event.

Love Is What Is Love

Sometimes in life, your desires for love fall flat compared to your expectations.

There are four basic types of love, such as

4 types of love world friend family romanceOne World Love

There is an innate part of us that expects that all peoples can mutually respect, love each other unconditionally and live in harmony. We all want to love and be loved without division, no matter what. Yet, we are disappointed to find division prevails so predominantly that we are more often than not at odds with each other and peoples find themselves warring against each other.

Love Between Friends

You have grown up with someone or met someone with common interests and something in you reaches out to them connecting with them in an effort to appreciate them, feel an affinity, even love them for who they are, what they stand for and you feel compelled to protect the relationship between you. You hope that this friendship-type-of-love will last forever. It doesn’t take long to find out that people are often not who they appeared to be, as we project ourselves onto them in an effort to establish such a love, nonetheless, some deep friendship connections do withstand the test of time.

Love of Family

When a mother gives birth to a child there is a deep connection a love-bond that is possibly closer than any other bond between two people. This love connection can spread throughout a family with the possibility of establishing a love relationship amongst all family members. Some love among friends can grow to familial proportions. While some families are united in love, some family and friends are united by bonds fueled by other adhesives.

Even though we want to love our parents and want to be loved by them, often the love we desire is not the love we receive, so we are inclined to accept whatever love we can receive from parents and/or family members if we are able to receive any at all.

Romantic Love

Romantic love is the most potentially powerful love between two people. So powerful in fact that the participant (or participants) in this type of love are willing to risk with in the belief that the potential for living the highest quality of life is more meaningful and enjoyable when shared by two of the most intimate of partners. This love includes a deeply emotional and strong sexual attraction, the feelings that fuel this type of love often do not last long but the relationship can survive out of a sense of duty or necessity.

Why is it that most all the love we desire seems to elude us?

Try this:

exude the love you desire to receive regardless of the circumstances or lack of reciprocity

Exude the love you desire to receive regardless of the circumstance or lack of reciprocity.

If you feel separate or different from the other people in the world, send love to the world, love all other people, even if they do not appreciate or love you. Love your neighbors and friends likewise, even if they mistreat you. Love your family members as if they loved you more than anything, whether or not you feel there is any evidence of their affection or support for you.

The love you seek would be a combination of all these types of love and you may be surprised to discover you will not find it outside yourself until you’ve found this degree of love within. Only then can you expect to attract the kind of person who also has the same capacity of love.

So ask yourself, “What would it look like if I loved all the people of the world, my neighbors, friends, family, and potential mate completely?”

Love like it’s the only thing that matters

because it is.

See you at the Soulmate Wizardry event.