continuity

Grandparenting

a child is born
and in the birthing of self
looks around and feels alone,
an aloneness that parents ameliorate for a time
as do friends when they’re there,

when love connects you with another
and a child is born
it’s hard to feel alone
for that child needs you
and you’re there for him and for her day and night
until their individuation separates parent and child again,

in my heart I’m still with my parents
and my children are still with me,
and my children and I for precious hours can be together again,
and then our different lives wrench us apart,

now that I’m lucky enough to be a grandparent
it’s harder and harder to feel alone
for there are younglings within whom my genes express themselves
in partnership with those of my love and of my son’s love,
and I can at least feel resonances of examples, of teaching,
of passing on gifts that are of the best to which we have risen,

when one granddaughter laughs at my tomfoolery
or another toddles up to me with arms raised in search of being in my arms,
when each day empowers them more and more
as cognition and heart learn to scale their selves higher and higher,
my eyes twinkle with the twinkle in theirs,
and I find joy every time each of them laughs, understands,
reveals a gift with which they rise,











when they leave our presence, I feel sad and more alone,
I also feel myself larger and fuller because they are,
for each of them is also who I am
and the substance of my life therefore feels fuller,
larger,
more nearly right.

by Henry Walker
December 30, 2009