Still visiting the grandchildren and I’ve been in grandmother heaven since Tuesday! On the way to their schools this morning we saw beautiful purple and pink clouds dressing up the sky as the sun rose up in a blazing yellow ball gown to light the morning’s sky. Two large V’s of Canadian geese, their wings stretched out, their legs parallel to their bodies, were flying through the sunrise, loudly honking their migratory flight directions to each other. After we put Handley out and headed to the boys’ school the jet plane contrails from several planes were morphing into a huge feather cloud. I love seeing feather clouds in the sky. Seeing them makes me think angels are around.

Last night Handley performed in her school chorus Christmas concert. All the children were dressed up so cute, all sang their little hearts out. I always tear up at the band concerts and had tears as the children sang last night, thinking how much Chief would have enjoyed seeing his granddaughter performing. But I think he’s here in spirit and might be looking down and bragging in heaven about his grandchildren. Someone told Chief once, “You’re not the only one who has grandchildren, Tom!” We both got a good chuckle about that.

Ashley and I had lunch with Handley at her school today. We ate our lunch sitting around a blue picnic table in a beautiful courtyard at her school. Handley walked me down the brick walkway and showed me the coy pond and the bird houses and places for turtles. The courtyard had bird feeders and a bird bath. I loved it! And loved spending girl time with her and Ashley.

I’ve been with my grandchildren for several days and I thought about a quote I had read. Had to search it out, it’s attributed to Jerry Smith. “Childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s seasons.” I know I had an idyllic childhood — safely rambling along the roads of my small town on a bicycle and a skate board and roller skates. No fast traffic on our streets, selling empty Coke bottles at the grocery store to buy a Coke and a candy bar, playing in the creek, drinking water from the hose pipe, listening for the mill whistle to blow to tell the time, riding my unicycle to the city library, playing outside at night with the lightning bugs until the street lights came on, no worry of stranger danger, innocent of life’s trials and tribulations.

In my growing up years, children were children for a longer period of time. We learned how to entertain ourselves. We understood we didn’t always win and every one didn’t deserve to receive a trophy. We learned how to play and to solve our squabbles by ourselves. Our lives were less scheduled. School work was easier and less stressful and was accomplished without technology. We didn’t have the internet but turned to our bookshelves for encyclopedias. And we didn’t have to do drills for intruders with guns because violence was not part of our world. We had the occasional bomb threat but we all knew we were safe and weren’t afraid in a crowd gathered safely away from the school. We enjoyed the break from the classroom.

My grandchildren have grown up with Covid taking their grandfather and their great-grandfather from their lives. They’ve been home schooled when Covid locked the doors to their schools. They know about stranger danger and how to protect themselves from an intruder in their school. They know the rules of gun safety. They seem to be innocent but the world is no longer an innocent place to grow up. Technology rules the classroom, iPads are glued in the children’s hands, as are the cell phones in their parents’ hands. My grandchildren’s screen time is limited and I’m grateful they have those rules.

Childhood shapes our lives and makes us who we are. We never forget our childhood. My grandchildren say their prayers and say the blessing at meal times, and take turns reading a prayer in the car on the way to school each morning. And I pray for their health and happiness. Join me every night in praying for the children in the world to learn of God’s love and blessings and pray as they travel though their season of childhood, they will be healthy, happy and safe.

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” — John F. Kennedy