Of Empty Nests

A new online friend of mine asked me last night about this empty nest thing. I thought I'd answer her here instead of in an email.

The empty nest, for me, has been incredible. Fun. A starting-over place. A time-to-make-my-dreams-come-true place.

But oh my! The hard, awful, painful parts were the prior years to the empty nest. The releasing of Naomi. The Really Letting Go, not the saying (lying) that I had and yet still aching inside at just the thought she'd someday be gone and my major days of motherhood would be no more.

That was tough.

But because God is so good, He walked me through those years, letting me take baby steps, not laughing at me when I fell at first. No, He'd just pull me up and remind me that motherhood, mostly, is His transient gift.  Those I'm-your-mother-let-me-help-you years are here for just a season. 

Yet after the flying away? There does exist amazing seasons.

That has been the biggest surprise.

After one year of an empty nest, this feels good, this life on the other side of a child at home. Over here, I glimpse delights I never saw on that other side.

I see the possibility of--

--doing what I have always wanted to do. 
--making old dreams come true and creating new ones and helping people along the way. 
--playing and puttering and dancing and making something only I could dream-up. 
--even cutting out paper dolls if I want to, realizing I don't need a child in the house as an excuse.

Of acting as young as I feel, instead of too often acting like somebody's mother.

Oh my. Lately I've felt more like the teenager I once was, well, the one from my non-moody happiest days. I've become reacquainted with the girl who peered into the future, saw possibilities of the dreamy, endless variety and believed she'd be able to conquer anything which got in her way.

But now I have a husband! And that's super cool, indeed. Fun. Adventurous.

And too, now I have some wisdom--thank-goodness. And hopefully wisdom will guide me to the places God means for me to be. Those places? I know they'll be good and right because He is good and right--even over here in the empty nest. 


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