What's GRAND about Getting OLDER?

YES.  It takes longer to wake up.

You thought it would never happen to you, but certain other things take longer too.

Mornings are shorter.  Good sleep is harder to find.  The ground keeps getting further away.  Your joints ache when the weather changes.    

Getting older means you have more time to think about things.  If you had the chance to go back, you would do a few things differently.  You may start to really feel the waning of physical strength or mental acuity.

But... then... all of a sudden... oh precious wonder...   Along comes the next generation.

As amazing as it seems to your children, you now know a thing or two more than you did "way back then".   You want to love these little bundles more than correct them.  You want to teach gently instead of with corporal authority.  You are less hurried and demanding of these little miracles than last time you claimed one as your own.

You have become wise.  You cherish the naked joy in a baby's smile.  You have time and money to spend on things that are important.  The awakened joy of "Generativity" comes from somewhere deep in your soul.  

Where you were once like a sapling tree shadowed under the leaves and branches of the OLD ONES who came before, you are now growing in the space they are starting to leave behind.  More than ever, you know how much they did to protect you until you were ready.

You also know you matter because the next generation matters.  And you can help!  Now you begin to understand the GRAND FACTOR!

As Baby Boomers age, and enter this stage of life, they do it differently than previous generations.  The impact of these differences is reverberating through our economy in something called the Great Recession.  It STEAMROLLS through governments and businesses.  Some of these institutions don't quite know what to make of us now.  But that's OK.  We create our social and political structures.  We made these - and they grew to tower over younger and newer ideas.  But these old ideas also start to fade in their power.  That's OK because, we can make them again when we take our own turn as the giants of the forest.

America is still a young child in the global scheme of things, and we are it's Parents - at least in a certain way.  It's going to be an interesting ride when the GRAND GENERATION finishes getting over being older and starts taking up the challenge of BEING GRAND!