Celebrate Green Blog

Why I try to be a green grandparent

It’s Grandparents Day and that got me thinking…

I became a grandparent for the first time nine years ago.

I hadn’t longed to be one.

I hadn’t thought about it much.

I had no idea how it would change my life.

But it did.

Watching our grandchild being born,

jolted me back to the day our first child came into the world.

I thought I knew before I laid eyes on him,

what life was about.

But when I held him I realized how little I knew.

In that small body lay everything–

every possibility, every pain, every happiness,

every moment of history.

As parents do, I became separated from that feeling as the years went on,

until the sight of the child of our child

brought it home again.

I’m not my grandchildren’s parent,

so I am not responsible for their day-to-day.

That is what their parents are for.

I love each of them with every piece of my heart.

But unlike having my own children,

when all I could think of was them–

how to love them, protect them, raise them doing as little damage as possible,

focused like a laser on our own little world,

having grandchildren pried me open to consider

the whole world.

I see myself as a minuscule piece of the puzzle.

A piece that may make a difference by listening

and by acting in ways that benefit not only

our family,

but all families whether they are fortunate enough

to have grandchildren,

or not.