Granddaughters

I have two granddaughters. Lindsay and Kira, the first 15 and the second 12. Both are beautiful. Both are talented.

Lindsay plays violin, ukulele, guitar and experiments with keyboard. She composes songs and sings as well! She plays in her high school orchestra, the Elgin Youth Symphony and attends summer music and arts camp in Michigan each summer. She was deeply involved in her middle school drama department and continues that experience into high school. She reads, writes and recites literature. We read books together and discuss them. Our current assignment is Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by one of our ancestors. This fascinates Lindsay on the one hand and fuels her understanding of current events and issues that matter to her on the other hand.  All in all, a very well balanced young woman. And she is beautiful, poised and excited about life in the real world. And earns all A’s consistently in school.

Now Kira is a different person entirely. She is a gymnast, plays the cello and guitar, is inquisitive of the world about her and very active. She reads, studies and earns top grades. We read together weekly at first the early childhood classics, then modern day youth literature. Her mind is developing quickly and incisively. This last Saturday morning rather than reading together she participated in one of her several gymnastic meets. I witnessed this one first hand. She competed on the vault, balance beam, uneven parallel bars and floor exercises. All beautifully done. All captivating to watch as these young women push their bodies to limits of strength, reach, movement and beauty.

Kira is poised and willowy. Beautiful and the very picture of a gymnast! And maturing before our very eyes. Summer music camp is drawing closer and she is excited for that experience.

Of course we grandparents attend concerts and plays the girls are in; but this was my first gymnastics meet. The experience recalled my attending my son’s athletic events – baseball, soccer, basketball – both in elementary grades through high school. In the very early years John did soccer; it exhausted him and us, his parents, watching his little legs churn the grass field first one way, then the other, all without seeming purpose! And finally one day he said he didn’t want to do that anymore; and with great relief we gladly withdrew him from youth soccer! It was as much our relief as his; who wants to sit on a cold, drizzly day on a wet lawn chair watching pointless little legs running endlessly from one end of the field to the next? Yuck!

But he went on to play sterling baseball and basketball. Some of those games are memorable. They were exciting and demonstrated a precision of play I had never noticed in sports before.  Now admittedly, I’m no sportsman. Far from it. I even actively dislike sports, mostly because I don’t see the point of it all, and actually because I didn’t participate in any of it when I was young. In fact, I hated gym with a passion. When I wish to conjure feelings of utter despair, I remember my days of enforced gym class attendance. It was truly something to survive. And not well!

But now with no worry of my required performance other than sitting in a chair and watching, gymnastics is a treat. Go Kira!

When our kids were growing up in Illinois their grandparents – both sets – were living far, far away, one set in California and the other in Arizona. Although they visited in summer for a few weeks, they were not around to witness weekly maturation and growth of personhood as we are now doing. It is a special treat. It is also something I never imagined for my own life. But it is here and now and very real. And what a pleasure!

My grandsons are yet quite young – 27 months and 3 months. They are gorgeous and engaging now. They will become most watchable in the coming years. What fun to know them through those years yet to come.

Meanwhile my dotage experiences a new generation blossom before my very eyes.

April 25, 2016