Wisdom of the G's

I'm sure that by now I've mentioned several times that I try to spend some time with my grandparents ('the G's') every week.  I see them at church for a few minutes every service, but I just need a little more visiting time, if you know what I mean.

Thursday afternoons are usually when we visit.  I go out to their place after work & we sit, chatting for a few minutes.  G-ma is always there.  We set our plans around that.  Depending on the weather & how he is feeling my G-pa may or may not be there.  He tries to keep moving as much as possible to keep himself limbered up.  He's a very motivated & disciplined fella.  The other day I went by for our visit & for the very first time I saw him without his shoes on.  It wasn't a good day.  He was having a lot of arthritis pain in his ankle so he had decided to take it easy, sip some green tea & chat with us.  During our little chats I learn so much.  Sometimes they are in the mood to reminisce.  That's when I learned that my G-pa was born at home, in a little shack that we used to be able to see from their farm.  And that's when I learned that my G-ma once won a bunch of Rhode Islander Red hens in a giveaway at the feed store.  Good, fun facts about their childhood.  I love it.

Every once in a while our conversations are more serious, more adult.  We debate the evils of society, the insurance industry, & nutrition.  Sometimes I think my G-pa likes to agrue with me just to see how riled I'll get.  Sometimes the conversations are heated but they are alway stimulating.

Even more often we talk about what makes a life & what things are worth remembering.  I don't know if they are motivated to topics like this because they are in their December or if it is just motivated by a desire to instill purposeful remembrance in me.  Because I am just not wired like that.  What jobs have I had?  Let me think...  How old was I when I had that apartment?  I'm not sure...  When did you get baptized?  Ummm...

One day as we were having our chat, G-ma suggested that I keep a diary.  Before I could even sigh through my many objections of who has time for that & blah, blah, blah, she went on to explain that it didn't have to be anything elaborate.  Maybe I could just keep a sort of time line of major events in my life.  Hmmm...this seems doable.  And worthy of some effort on my part.

So I have this little red journal (thanks, Steph!).  It's blank pages are just begging for some graffiti.  I think I need to begin to record the timeline of my life.  Keep me accountable, because you know all about the best laid plans...