On being human: empty nest

This may not have lasted for a long time, but it did swoop down on me and made me lose some balance for a while -- to think that I was too busy minding other people's business.

Personal, physical, emotional, spiritual changes, you can run the whole gamut of human experience - I have gone through them ( and still a work in progress).  I went high with success, satisfaction, enlightenment, friendship, contentment, challenges on one end of the spectrum and on the other end -- went wobbly with menopause, empty nest, growing old, senility, self doubt, spiritual dryness, death, weight, sickness, career change, losses...

Here's one I tracked down from my journal more than 6 years ago.

I.  Empty nest.

 Two rooms were vacant and where my other son slept, at the foot of our bed, was vacant too.

 Alone!

My husband slept soundly, while I missed my children. 

So I visualized them in my drawings,  coming home calling our names and our dogs.

This happened so fast, and before I knew it, they were all over our place again, all over us with their wives and husband and children.

not bad!

My drawings made me laugh so hard after I made them that the drama was over in a day.


II.  Death

And this one made me laugh harder!!

tears on paper

III.  Sacrifices

Things were considered very seriously as I was writing this several years ago but I rolled on the floor crying and bursting to the seams reading it again a few days ago!

And I can't believe what I wrote as my final sacrifice: " I will not buy anything for myself - anything I already have!

 

(in fairness, it worked very well indeed)

Oh the things I did to keep my sanity!

old home, new home

Someone was missing his old place and came to visit one day.  There were remnants of old toys found stashed away in the "let-go bin". 

And the baby crib that was warm and familiar was also being missed...  so Jose came back to sleep in it.

















one more time... in his old crib, in his old home where he turned 1!

  goodbye frogglerocks!  I now live on an Anthill... I hope you can come visit me there, where the citylights are awesome...

As we left and walked under the bridge, I took his photo.

then he gave me his hose so he could take mine.

photo by Jacob

Happy growing on your Anthill Jacob and Jose as Uncle Juaqui and Auntie Anne make your old home under the bridge their new home.

...and they all lived happily ever after.

memories of an empty space

After my daughter moved in to her new home with her husband and two sons, the basement of my house where they used to live, seemed to be wondering where the usual mess and noise were.  The walls were waiting to bounce off the children's gleeful noises but there was nothing to echo all of a sudden.

No dishes were being washed in the kitchen sink nor dirty hands to clean.  The washing machine was dumbfounded to be silenced!

 The bathroom that was always occupied has nothing left except for two rubber duckies and a washcloth.

A flower headdress was waiting for its owner to bring it to its new place but the table seem to be content to at least have something to remember Jacob by.

And Jose...