A nice thing…

I was smiling in the grocery store’s produce section as I thought about all the things I wanted to buy, realizing that they would be where I put them when I wanted them the next day or the next.

That next day would be just as free and undetermined as that moment near the broccoli. I could, if I chose, go home and watch a movie in the middle of the sfternoon, or crank the music up to a pottery rattling level, or walk around in whatever level of dress or undress I chose.

I’ve heard of this empty nest thing before, but I never realized how much room there would be to dance, or how the nest would stay so clean and uncluttered.

I’ve heard of this  empty nest, but I could never have dreamed, twenty-eight years ago, that the sound of my own nesting would make such a pleasant rustling in the branches.

A nice thing… the guiltless freedom of the empty nest.