The budding leadership and clarity of desire in children never ceases to amaze me.

Since I wrote my post, Store Order Alert from Australia I have received increased web traffic, web contact comments, and even a phone call thanking me for the post.

The unconditional love of a Grandparent and the ability to see the true essence of a grandchild is our specialty.

According Dr. Arthur Karnhaber, M.D., president of the Foundation for Grandparenting and author of several books on the subject including, The Grandparent Guide (McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Book, 2002), “. . . the grandparent/grandchild relationship is an illuminating relationship comprised of the purest form of human love: unconditional, nonjudgmental, and freely given simply because the person exists.”

 It’s not enough to merely survive the grandmother-mother relationship for my daughter and me. I lost my mother to suicide when I was 23 and my daughter never had the chance to know her maternal grandmother. As a result, we strive to thrive. As a mother, my only grandmother role models were my mother-in-law, Grandma Miriam, and my stepmother, Grandma Jocelyn. I learned some great lessons from them that I have tried to carry forward to my grandma days.

 In honor of Grandparents Day on September 13th, I will provide some insights from my own journey as a baby-boomer grandma and leadership development specialist in the form of a "Grandmas Leadership Garden" series.

My goal for this series is to empower grandmothers to take an active role in the leadership development of their grandchildren. But it’s not the kind of leadership you may think. It begins inside grandma.