Rapid thoughts from a sandwich generationer

The apartment is currently quiet, a rarity these days. My parents, my wife, and two daughters are at the "silver slide park." We identify the parks around here by what they feature. My son is at the 4 year old birthday party of Elisa, one of his classmates. This year they are in their 2nd year of school together.

I dropped him off there at 3:20 p.m. and need to get him in 12 minutes, so this will be short. When I dropped him off, he was the only boy among Elisa and 2-3 other girls. At this point in life, he's not at all phased by being the only male among females. Hopefully, it won't phase him too much as he gets older.

Part of my life now involves dropping off and picking up my 2 older kids at different events. I have a break for the time being with my 7 month old, as she doesn't yet need to be dropped off by herself. But someday I'll be taxiing and/or escorting my 3 kids to this or that birthday party, game, class, etc.

On the other side, I'm getting a firsthand look at aging during my parents' visit. Both sets of my grandparents moved from Detroit to California during my junior high days and I rarely saw them after that. I saw them when they were older and remember 3 of the 4 being quite out of it mentally during my last visit with them. But I wasn't around in the daily grind to see what aging can take away from people.

It's weird seeing my mother, whom I remember as a vibrant, creative, and intelligent woman, being like a 85 pound skin and bones shadow of herself. Most of the time, she has a hard time verbally expressing what she wants to say. Her expression is mostly hollow. While she used to love to cook and create, she is mostly in survival mode nowadays.

It's a good reminded not to take for granted the facilities that God has given me at this point in my life, as I'm not guaranteed to always have good health, sound mind (well, mostly sound mind), the ability to communicate verbally, in writing, and through visuals like web sites and videos.

In some ways, today's experience has been like having kids on both sides of me. I certainly expect that of my 3 young ones, but not of my parents. But with their current states, it is like we are taking care of them as well. I guess that this is normal, but I've never regularly experienced it before.

This is a reminder to be thankful for small daily blessings, like health, friends, and family. All of these can be very fragile.

Yesterday I was amazed that, when our 4 year old was drawing, he wanted to hear again another piece by Mozart. I don't think that I even knew any classical music at that age. It's amazing how quickly they are learning and growing. That also is a blessing from God.