GRAND Magazine - Summer 2020 - 23

grandparenting
Both during and after raising our families, all
have embraced opportunities to give back to
the world. Two have served extensive medical
missions in third world countries to teach medical staffs how to save newborn babies. One has
served with her husband mentoring inmates at
the state penitentiary. Many have served with
their husbands as church leaders all over the
world. They are writers and thinkers and full of
stimulating ideas. Each has been a mentor in my
life and taught me a lot about grandmotherhood.
And all of them have great senses of humor.
We usually meet for lunch and then take turns
leading a discussion about our families, our
grandchildren, and our recent favorite books.
During a recent meeting, our hostess just happened to have a small book sitting on her coffee
table entitled, The Joys of Getting Older that
she said she really liked. The endorsement at
the top of the cover said, "An inspirational look
at the beauty found within the Circle of Life."
The endorsement on the back cover read, "A
straightforward, clear-cut how-to book for putting a spark (or two!) back into your life. It truly
describes the magical beauty to be found in the
twilight years."
The authors were Thomas and Cindy Senior
and the back-cover synopsis reads, "Thomas
and Cindy Senior are the best-selling husband
and wife team who authored Retiring Gracefully.
Here, in the tradition of their previous books, they
have collected all the best advice and share their
insight into how you can lead a happy and energetic life after reaching "that certain age."
23 GRAND

Summer 2020

We didn't get the joke until we opened the
book. ALL of the pages were totally blank! When
we quit laughing, someone seriously suggested
that in response to that book, we go around our
lunch table and each contributes what we do love
about growing older.

* Finding time for family history
* Having more time for my own siblings
* Being peers to my daughters and
daughters-in-law.
* Having time to think about each precious soul
in my stewardship.

HERE IS OUR LIST OF THINGS WE HAVE
LOVED AS WE HAVE AGED:
* GRANDCHILDREN (this one had to come first
and it came up over and over in different
contexts)
* More time, freedom
* My progeny: children and grandchildren.
Watching them grow and having fun with
them.
* Changing... I can finally work purposefully on
ways to improve
* The chance to be reflective
* Being able to plan my own schedule
* Feeling closer to my husband, and more time
focusing on each other
* Discovering the real purpose of life
* Learning to be a thoughtful matriarch and a
thoughtful, deliberate grandmother
* Experiencing simplicity
* Having time to count my blessings every day
* Becoming less critical and more empathetic
* Feeling the power of friends supporting each
other
* Being a cheerleader for my posterity-especially those grandkids
* Cutting out things that aren't important
* Realizing that age is liberating

So even though we may have issues about getting older and friends who are facing physical
difficulties like knee and hip replacements or are
suffering from serious issues with family members
like cancer, dementia and even Alzheimer's, we
can remain optimistic that there are multitudes of
things to be grateful for as we grow older. I challenge you to make your own list. You might be
surprised at what you think of-and how many
times you think of your grandkids.
I have loved that quote from Martha
Washington (see previous page) since I was a
young mother and find it now even more important as I deal with the ups and downs, crisis and
joys of grandmothering.
Richard and Linda Eyre's parenting and life-balance
books have reached millions and been translated into a
dozen languages. As fellow Baby Boomers, their passion
and their writing focus has now shifted to the joy of
Grandparenting. Linda's latest book is Grandmothering,
Richard's is
Being a Proactive
grandfather, and
their latest coauthored book is
Life in Full. All three
of these are now on
sale on Amazon.

GRAND Magazine - Summer 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - Summer 2020