#70 - THE NOT SO EMPTY NEST....

Today, I began to remove the wallpaper border from the smallest of our four bedrooms.

 I couldn't help comparing the significance of that border to this week's milestones.   

The balloons of red, blue and yellow that adorned it became the theme of the nursery we established in 1988, the year we moved into our home, and the year we were expecting our third child.  

 Last week, in an instant, a baccalaureate service and a graduation ceremony concluded our twenty-two year tenure as the parents of four school age children, and twenty-seven years of child-rearing.

  How criminal, yet appropriate it is to burst those balloons with my scraper, expose a bare and empty wall, reestablish it with mature solidity, and modify it to suit our newfound roles as empty-nesters.  

If what my parents said all those years is true, the nest is only empty for the short run. 
 They never really leave, and in less time than it takes to brew a cup of coffee in the Keurig, they're back with their own loved ones and memories they've begun to build.
Today I celebrate Brian, from the infant whose head seemed tailor made for my shoulder, to the young man who has trumped the hand he was dealt by giving in to learning and loving and doing...he's been a blessing.
I'm glad the balloons are descending to the floor.
I'm anticipating new color and arrangement.
I cherish the primary leg of my journey as a parent, look forward to the next, and am depending on constant, happy reminders that the nest is never truly empty......