Yesterday, Red kept an eye on things while Maria picked cucumbers from our Three Sisters garden. This morning, it is still dark, Maria and I are heading for the train from Albany to New York, an hour or so away, so we can get to Brooklyn and meet my new granddaughter, Robin.

She is less than one week old. This is a passage, I understand, I am setting out to understand what my new role as a grandfather means and for Maria, there is uncertainty, a new experience for her. I hope she will find a role for herself in this new part of our story, she is viscerally loving but open to new experience but treading on strange ground, as she wrote last night in her post “Visiting Robin.”

The role of the step-grandparent is perhaps even more complex than mine.

I am bringing a load of grandfatherly offerings – my own children’s books, some toys, a Dr. Seuss book called “The Places You’ll Go,” that Maria chose. I have the sense today will be exhilarating and exhausting. We’ll be back later tonight,  which is Thursday. I hope to take my new granddaughter out to her first lunch in the world.

I love life, it is rich and ever changing, and keeps bring me amazing gifts, if I remain open to them. We both love the train ride to New York, we hold hand and stare out the window together.  I am discovering my self every day.