The author started looking forward to her empty nest.
Courtesy of Susan Teresa
I hadn't known that choosing to be a parent was also saying yes to an inevitable series of heartbreaks.It starts small. In their early teen years, you realize they've started keeping secrets. The number of subjects they'll only discuss with friends keeps growing, while your role as confidant shrinks and fades (for the time being).In later teen years, the internal clock that tracks your waning time together begins to tick louder. Your home becomes a changing station — a pitstop between other, more exciting destinations — as your offspring come and go.When they leave for college, every visit, followed by every leaving, becomes a mini-earthquake — shaking your entire nervous system.So when my firstborn moved across the country for his first real job, and my twins started looking toward college, I knew I had to prepare myself for the ultimate heartbreak: an empty nest.Learning how to fill an empty nestAs my twins chattered on — hypothesizing about what roommates and campus life would be like, researching room décor, furniture, and sundries for college dorm living — I conducted my own research.I've always believed words carry weight, so I found it interesting that the word "empty" could feel so heavy. Ironically, "empty" also points to a solution. When a glass is empty, we fill it. When writers fill empty pages, they become authors. Even an empty heart can fill with an act of caring.
