I Hope They Are Never Too Old For Grandma Time
This past week, I was brought into the world of a child’s imagination and gifted the experience of bringing one of his stories to life. My youngest grandson loves to “play” and interact with his world as different characters. For a short time, he was a puppy dog barking out his wants and needs, sitting up and rolling over to bring smiles to those around him. Then, it seemed, for years, he was a dragon or a dinosaur, roaring his way through life and galloping through his world.
He called me last week and asked if Grandma would help him make some “armor” for his knightly self. His mom said he had tried to create something in cardboard and in Styrofoam that didn’t work, so she bought him some pleather (yep, fake leather). He brought it over for Grandma to work her magic on and create an outfit for himself. As it turned out, the fake stuff is great for seat covers but not body armor, so we went fishing in my leather and scrap piles and came up with some old, textured cow hides that had been gifted me a while back. They were dry and the folds permanently bent into them, but he didn’t care, they might stop an arrow. When he started talking about a helmet next, I found an old scrap piece of thick brown leather and created a little helmet using the drum mallet for one of my bigger drums as the ‘head’ model. I cut the top of the scrap into a heart shape (like my drum teacher Cindy Green aka Drumheart) had taught me and sewed it up to fit around the head of the mallet. Folded in half, we cut the face out and voila’. A knight’s helmet that fit our “stick model.” The scrap I had used was a beautifully tanned, dark brown deer hide, not all that practical (cost wise) for such a project. He was a bit disappointed until I remembered an old couch his folks had tossed out several years ago. It ended up on our dumpster pile for disposal. What I saw on the pile to be tossed was lots of leather… yep, scissors in hand, I set out to reclaim all that beautiful, dark brown, and wonderfully worn, thick, soft leather.
I called my daughter. She knew right where it was in the storeroom. Success… we had even heavier, soft, dark brown, helmet-making material to recycle into a little boy’s dream. Our time was up for day one and he headed home to dinner and homework with a promise of returning the next day to work on his “armor”. It has been a long time since I sat in joy filled creativity with either of the boys, and I am so grateful that they aren’t too old to hang out with Grandma yet. I spent the next morning working out a design for a little boy sized “helmet”, cut it out, sewed it up and surprise, surprise, it fit my stuffed gorilla Koko. Deceptive how large a little boys head is. It cracked me up when I saw how small (but so much bigger than our model) the next edition of head armor turned out. When “my boy” came back the next afternoon, I had laid out the dry, folded but cut out model of body armor in the sprinklers earlier that morning. I knew that moisture would soften the hide and it worked. We tried it on and decided it was perfect for a pattern but needed some tweaking and set about to “water down” another piece that was a bit bigger. We traced a new pattern on the back of this larger hide and while my grandson diligently cut it out, Grandma, with better head measurements (aka a live model), sat about cutting out a new “skull cap”. This time we stapled it together before sewing it up, to make sure he could try it on to test the fit. Turns out third time is a charm and we achieved success. I found and cut out a double stitched length that had been the trim on the front of the couch arms and it turned into the perfect belt for his outfit, just needed to be attached to the chest plate and add some hardware to hold it closed. That was a mom project they completed that night and Grandma got a picture of a big smile on her youngest grandson sporting his “armor” in style.
This long story carries a short and important lesson for me, for all of us. Take time to spend with your loved ones while they are young enough to inspire you or old enough to talk story with you or just the right age to share a cup of soda or tea. Feeling blessed with cherished moments and memories made on this week and hoping they never get too old for more Grandma time. May your weekend bring you moments to cherish, new memories to store away, and the joy of family, friends, and community. Grandma’s Rock! ***🎊 It’s not too late to join this Free Online Event: Crones, Hags & Elder Wise Women of Power Summit 2022, September 21-30. Register here: https://www.fullcirclewomen.com/wisewomensummit 🙌 Also, Listen in to my debut show, a Tribute to Lynn Andrews with Jack Crimmins and Steven Halpern Tuesday morning 9:00 am Pacific time with an encore at 9:00 pm. Just go to https://bit.ly/3BLehbY click on shows and scroll down to Tuesdays to find our show listed.
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Vicki Dobbs is a bold and adventurous warrior walking a path of heart to manifest spirituality in everyday lives. She opens existential gateways for individuals to face their challenges and embrace these tests as the great teachers that they are.
Her goal is to see everyone walk in beauty and balance every day of their lives empowered by the voice of their own authentic truth.
Through Wisdom Evolution and Sacred Wisdom Workshops, Vicki creates opportunities for others to make deep personal changes through experiential classes, ceremony, sacred art and story. She endeavors to inspire others to create their lives intentionally. Vicki is an Inspirator of everyday awareness, an Instigator of spontaneous stories and a Connoisseur of Creativity. Gratitude and grace sprinkled with humility and humor are the medicine she brings to the world.
As an Elder, Teacher and Entrepreneur, Spiritual Coach, Ordained Minister and Crafter of Sacred Art and Tools, Vicki perceives life’s journey as an ever-upward spiraling ascension of the human spirit leading her to wisdom, wholeness and authenticity.
Her experience includes being trained in the Harner Method of Shamanic Counseling and the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of Cross Cultural Shamanism. She is a Graduate Teacher and Mentor with the Lynn Andrews Center For Sacred Arts and Training and has been the Administrator and Writers Guide for Writing Spirit, the School.
Vicki is also an Artist of the Spirit Certified Spiritual and Energetic Life Coach, a Graduate Mentor in the AoS program and a founding member of HeatherAsh Amara’s Warrior Goddess Leadership Team and Facilitator of the Warrior Heart Practice.
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