Grandchildren

I'm in Miami with my daughter Sarah, visiting my grandson Adam, who lives and works here, and his sister, Elizabeth, who flew down from New York to play with us. Of course they are the most wonderful human beings in the entire world, but I've been thinking about why being with them is so extraordinary, beyond the fact that they belong to me.

One gift is that I've lived long enough to see them mature into full blown adults who treasure peace and love and appreciate for the many differences between people. These are the values I hoped to instill in my children and it's wonderful to see them in my grandchildren.

I've also been thinking about the differences between our relationship with our children versus our  grandchildren. For one, we worry much less about the decisions they make about life plans, what school they attend, who their friends are, who they love and marry. We're still very much invested without the worry and concern. We leave that to their parents having had enough sleepless nights. We indulge them far more often with far less guilt. 

What has been particularly wonderful for me on this visit, is how comfortable they are with me, to say what they think and feel openly about a whole myriad of topics. That's the true joy for me.

I could write about how wonderful they are for many pages. Instead, I'm going to put on my bathing suit and join them at the beach. 

I do have to explain about the photo. Two thoughtful, kind men rescued $10,000 dollars worth of lobsters from a tank at a nearby restaurant. They took pity on the creatures, purchased the lot of them to toss back into the ocean. So of course Adam, Biz and Sarah joined in freeing the prisoners!