Thanksgiving day and we are preparing for our blended family to descend upon us and make our lives better with their presence for a few hours. Some people dread these events but we love them. I love them even though my hearing is so bad that I can’t really enjoy the general conversation. I have to be one on one with someone in some quiet place. Hearing aids are of marginal assistance.

We will be blessed to have four generations together at once. The little ones do not have a paternal grandparent on either side so I get to be their honorary grandpa. I like that. I would make the argument – and there is my biggest problem: I would make an argument even if only in my head. Making arguments makes it difficult to be thankful, to be grateful for, well – anything. And I have to say that feeling grateful is a much more relaxing experience. Feeling grateful – even if you’re only faking it – improves your life.

So I won’t make any argument. I will say how grateful I am to be the elder fatherly figure to four beautiful children. Having grandparents is very important for young children. It gives them something ineffable, something spiritual that they can’t really get from parents whose secondary duty but one the one that gets focused on is to teach the kids how to get along in the world. (I could talk about what that means but it’s too vast a topic to go into here.) The grandparents only duty to grand children is to give unconditional love. Harder than it sounds.

But I welcome and give thanks for the opportunity. It gives me the chance to become the person that I felt I was called to be at many times in my life. I did not have good role models growing up. I have a lot of selfishness that gets in the way. I have other emotional/ psychological that get in the way. So I am grateful to have grandchildren with whom I can do my best to offer to them what God wants for all of us: unconditional love. Honestly, I feel like I’m in way over my head but I am truly grateful for the opportunity.

PEACE and LOVEYA and Thanksgiving Blessing to you and yours.