Grandma Jean and Jasper
July 2nd, 2010 | 
Author: Grandma’s 93rd birthday was last week but she is no longer alive on Earth so she missed it.
Grandma Jean departed in March. Although resistant for many years, in the end she understood that there was something more waiting. She knew it was her time and so she left us in peace. It was a final gift from a generous and loving woman to those of us that would mourn her passing. Instead we are left to wonder and muse upon what she might be doing now, to cherish her life lessons (primarily taught by example) and to always know her pride in us.
Grandma never met Jasper. At least we don’t think so. In any case, we didn’t witness their encounter if in fact there was one. Jasper was born on June 14th, the first child of my sister, so he is now 18 days old, having breathed his first breath less than three months after Grandma breathed her last.
As it’s been years since I’ve spent time with a newborn, I’d forgotten how enthralling it is just to stare at the darling little face of burgeoning awareness, his instinctive cries for survival, his utter dependence on his loving caregivers, and, of course, his impact on everyone he touches. How does such a tiny little creature completely transform the nature of life to his new family? One can only stand by in awe when confronted with the reality of how fast we can fall desperately in love, how immediately our own life can become secondary to another.
2010 is a landmark year for our family to have witnessed the wonder of both life and death in such an intimate manner.
Both Grandma and Jasper have shown me that everything in the universe we need is available right now. In this exact moment of time, everything is as it should be. This is something that I will have to remind myself of every day.
Goodbye Grandma, you were an inspiration. I would love to know what you are up to now but I imagine I will find out soon enough..
And Jasper, welcome to our planet! What a joy it will be to watch you grow…
Au revoir Grandma
A brand new life
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Eden, What a beautifully moving post so eloquently written. I have always thought similarly… that life is cyclical… usually after someone dies in my life… someone else is born. Grandma Jean is still very much with me as she always will be and Rebecca – wow – look at that gorgeous human being you have brought into this world!!! I have only seen photos… and I just can’t wait to meet him. Love you all very much. xo Jen PS. Eden, in this world of blogging that I have recently gotten into, I have many blogs that I “follow”. Most of them are Blogspot blogs and by following them, whenever I open my blog, the lastest posts automatically come up in my “dashboard”. I would love to follow yours but cannot find the way to do so. Do you have any idea? Please let me know. xoxo
The Circle of Life continues and it really does seem like the natural ebb and flow of the evolutionary process. We are all born and we all die. My reflections on life lately are: Life is short and it really does go so fast so enjoy the ride and what a ride it can be. I think it was Helen Keller who said that “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all”. Another quote that I came across recently that I thought was beautiful: “The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears”. This is a Native American Proverb.
Thanks Eden and HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
Looking forward to your next book.
XXOO and All the best,
Jane (aka AJ)
Thanks Jen and Jane. Great comments.
Jen, WRT your question about ‘following’, I must confess to being relatively new to the world of blogging myself. I also have a business-related blog via blogspot (http://eden-watt.blogspot.com/) and ‘following’ is a feature of the google blogs; however, this is a wordpress blog and I’m told the approach here is to typically add this as an RSS feed. There are also some plug-ins available which I will look into, which will allow subscription to the blog.
Perhaps if someone else reads this and is an expert in the world of blogging, they can give us some additional advice..