The Joy of Continuity

Well, the next two generations below just left the summer cottage and it’s only us old folks left. Despite my minor health issues, it was a most marvelous time. The 2^nd or 3^rd explosion-free visit with the grandkids and a good sign that they are maturing, happier with who they are, more clear about who we expect them to be and in general, so much more of “very, very good” and so much less (none this trip) of “horrid.”

 

One of the highlights was 12-years-olds Zadie and her friend Zulia cooking dinner for all of us. Watching them take it on in the kitchen, their kitchen clean-up before serving, the beautifully arranged serving and the most nutritious and delicious Mexican-style taco meal was a wonder to behold and a grand pleasure to eat. Then the next day they baked me a ricotta raspberry birthday cake, again, to perfection. Yet another day 9-year-old Malik was my sous-chef for a pasta meal and that was also fun and new territory. 

 

Today we watched the Women’s Basketball Olympic final and so beautiful how many of the team players looked like Zadie and I could actually imagine her on a team like that or running Olympic track-and-field some day. Probably not, as it would take a passion for either sport and a determination, indeed, obsession, that is most likely not her Soul’s path. But just imagining the possibility was a grand pleasure. 

 

From beating us in races (both Zadie and Malik actually beat their Aunt Talia who is pretty darn fast), to geometrically-increased paddleball records (Zadie and Talia got 486, Talia and Malik 94), to beating us in card games to joining us in artful and hilarious Charade games, the human drama is being played out just as it should. The old lead and then step aside as the young people move on up. The elders feel the needed sense of continuity, that everything they cared about and cared for will continue beyond their mortality and perhaps done better than they could in their particular time and place. That’s how it’s supposed to happen. 

 

All of which makes me look forward to the next incarnation of their emerging selves, with faith in their ability and character. On we all go!