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June also is the month when our family has the most birthdays. My granddaughter turned 6 years old last week. I have a picture of her looking at her lit birthday cake, and I was able to capture the look on her face only a 6-year-old has — the wonder, the magic of a birthday.
She doesn’t yet realize how fast the years are going to go by. She doesn’t realize that in just a blink of an eye she, too, will be a grandma watching her grandchild get ready to blow out their candles.
She has so much to look forward to, and there is no way for me to tell her what to expect from her life. I have learned that usually none of what we expect ever happens.
Much more good happens than we had ever imagined. We get through the hard, difficult bumps or mountains in our lives and laugh on the journey every chance we get.
I do not allow much television watching in our home, especially in the summer.
One program I enjoy is on PBS called “Reading Rainbow.” The other day the book was about being scared. I asked my 7-year-old granddaughter if she was afraid of anything. Turns out yes, she is. She is afraid to ride her bike without the training wheels.
I want them to fear nothing. I call it having your twanda. (You have to watch the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” and you will find out that twanda is when you find your inner strength). My friend and I use this term frequently with one another.
So wanting her not to be afraid, I told her that I never had training wheels. She was amazed and awed. She asked how I didn’t tip over. I said I did sometimes; that is why God gives us knees and elbows. I told her my dad would hang on to the seat and when he let go, I didn’t even know it.
See? I want her to know, without a doubt, that someone will always be there to hold her and also to let her go. Let her go but not walking away; letting go and watching her find her inner strength that says, “I can do it!” I tried, I might have fallen a few times, I got back up and I did it! No matter what the experience is to know she can try and find her way.
I was thinking about our conversation later and was thankful that we live in an area where her answer was not about violence or war. I am thankful that she lives in a safe place. She has many years to learn there are horrid, awful things that happen in the world.
I had a birthday this month also, as did my mom and my nephew. Isn’t life grand? When I was younger no one could have told me how much fun I would have at this middle age of my life.
No one told me that being a grandma was the best part of life. Looking back, I should have known because I had the best grandma. One day when my granddaughters and I were playing a board game I had to shuffle the cards. My 7-year-old granddaughter is amazed at this feat; she really wants to be able to shuffle cards. She asked how I learned to do it. I said my grandma taught me. I said she was a really good grandma.
To my amazement she leaned across the board and said, “You mean like you?”
Oh my. I would never put myself in the league of my grandma; those are shoes no one could ever fill. And yet here is a little girl telling me I am in those shoes. I still don’t think I am the grandma mine was, but I am walking in the steps she was teaching me without me even knowing it.
My husband says I enjoy being a grandma because I don’t have to be grown up. Well, of course I do. Don’t all grown ups believe that if you kiss a frog he might, just might, become a prince? “And then what would we do with a prince?” I asked my granddaughter when she did in fact kiss a frog one day.
Don’t all grown-ups believe there are fairies in the garden and woods? Just because we cannot see them does not mean they are not there. You never know.
We thrive on imagination here. It can take us anywhere and we are not afraid of the adventure.
Linda Fort lives on a farm near Ridgeway, raises calves and heifers and crops. In addition to staying active in the community, she’s enjoying grandparenthood. “There’s a reason they call it ‘grand.’”
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