DAY 42 - Pick me up at the airport?

On a call today from his home in New York, Zion asked, "Can you pick me up at the airport?" I let him know that I not only could, but that I would love to. He assured me that he would call me as soon as the plane had landed.

Nothing unusual here; except that Zion is 6 and his plane won't land 'til sometime in 2022.

Zion is my grandson; the eldest of my daughter, Jovi, and son-in-law Robert's two children. At age 2, while he and his parents visited us at our home in Ojai, CA, Zion got his hands dirty and tasted what must have already been in his bones; farming. (brief slide show of Zion on the farm at age 2 – click here)

I want to believe that we would have bonded without it, but I too love dirt, worms, watering, raking, veggies, and hunting gophers.

Today’s phone conversation began, as they often do these days, with Zion requesting a report, an update on the gopher situation in my/our (his and my) vegetable garden. I suggested that I could shoot a short video of the garden, the areas of gopher activity, and the traps that were set. Zion, quite comfortably stated that he thought it would be cooler to Skype (live video conferencing) right now so that he could see the garden in real-time.

I love being a grampa! I love Zion! And, yes, I opened up Skype and out I went, into the garden with my grandson.

Together, transcontinentally, we looked over the gopher situation. From there we moseyed around through the vegetables until we found a beautiful red bell pepper and a mature, tan butternut squash. Zion suggested that we harvest them and bring them in. We did.

Before we made it back to the house, we stopped for a bit to talk under a 100+ year-old oak tree. It was there that he touched my heart, telling me that when he turns 18 he wants to come live with me and his Noona (my wife Joanne), forever.

From there, he wanted to talk through the preparations. First was to make sure that we would pick him up at the airport. He would take all his money out of his bank account, ask his Daddy to drive him to the airport, try to get a seat near the front of the plane for quick deboarding, and, of course, since by that time he would have his own phone, he would call me as soon as the plane landed.

It doesn’t get much better!

In the meantime, I will keep myself busy working with others to make sure that Zion and all the little ones have a healthy and just planet on which to live.