I’ve been spending some time this past week with my 6½ year-old granddaughter Kyra, and I’m reminded again of the many gifts that come to us older adults when we’re in the company of young children. Most grandparents can attest to the fact that when you hold the hand of a grandchild you get immediate permission to reclaim your own inner 5 year old. In InterPlay, (the improvisational system that I teach) we tease that it helps in learning the system if you can bring along a 4 year old to help you remember how to play.
I was present 6 ½ years ago when Kyra was born in a hospital in Joshua Tree near the national forest in the California desert. On the visits that have followed that first cross-country plane trip I’ve cheered her on as she learned to walk, and speak, and dance, and float, put her face in the water, and eventually learn to swim. I’ve sat patiently and proudly through numerous hours of dance classes and recitals and held my breath as she tumbled and performed summersaults on her backyard trampoline.
On this visit, I’ve been watching her learn a sport I hardly knew existed –rock climbing. Her mom has sent pictures but I didn’t really appreciate the courage and persistence it takes until I saw the operation in person in the rock climbing gym. My mirror neurons took me on a journey with her as I stood looking up from the base of the 20-ft wall, holding my breath on her behalf as she tacked back and forth to reach the top. I marveled at the operation of the harnesses and the seemingly endless energy and strength of her small body. Next came the joyful smile on both our faces as she would be lower smoothly, swiftly, and safely to the ground.
All this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Helen Keller, “Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing!” Kyra seems to have learned this truth much younger in her life cycle than I did in mine. But then she got her social security card when she was born, and I got mine when I landed my first paying job at sixteen. We applied for her passport yesterday and I was probably somewhere in my thirties when I got my first one.
There are other signs of the differences in my granddaughter’s maturing processes. She seems to intuit what I need and take action to provide it. When I talked with her about time zones and how traveling through three of them in one day has made me quite exhausted she leaves the room, returning with a tiny teddy bear selected from her enormous pile of stuffed animals. This bear’s arms are folded in the prayer position, and being a modern stuffed animal, it has a button I can push to have the “Now I lay me down to sleep” pray spoken to me out loud as I drift off to sleep.
Sheila
