Summer Renewal
This summer, as in years past, like other people I’ve found myself wanting to make some changes in my life. Occasionally, we all need to take stock, experience new things, shed the stagnant or unhealthy, enhance the positive, and generally to get as much out of life as we can (in short, to quote Oprah, “To live our best life”). In late spring, I dropped out of a music group I’d been a member of for more than 10 years. I had reached a wall there and so decided to free up some time and energy to seek new creative challenges. Meanwhile, my daughter and I booked two mother-daughter gigs with our church that were both challenging and personally fulfilling. I’m pulling out music I haven’t looked at in years. I have a long way to go to achieve my goals, but I feel I’ve made the right decision.

On July 4th weekend, we began the renovation of our home offices, primarily to give me fresh creative and work environments. Over time, I found myself less and less able to concentrate in the cramped, dingy space I called my office. Both my creative writing and my high-pressure day job as a content manager for a publisher's service demanded that I do something about it. I look back at the onset of the venture (at which we're still toiling) as my personal Independence Day. When the project’s finished, I’ll post photos—it will be gorgeous. We should have done it years ago.

I cut my hair. This took a real leap of faith. Joe, my hairstylist, was ecstatic—should have done it years ago, he told me. (Do I detect a recurring theme?) It was an impulse decision on my part—and that was the only way to do it. No combs or clips this summer. Just cool breezes and the car windows down. It’s short, sassy, and has no upkeep. Great for bicycling, sailing, you name it.

Speaking of sailing, this summer I’ve become more involved with our sail club (see “Oh, Baby! It’s a Magical Night: Wednesday Night Racing,” the SPORTS department column in this issue). I’ve found that I really enjoy having a good time with our club’s interesting group of sailors. And, I’ve learned that Wednesday night racing and socializing is a great mid-week way to deal with work-related stress. (Note that this article has been submitted for publication in Sailing World magazine in response to their call for vignettes on Wednesday night sailing.)

In July, my good friend June (a Rosemont colleague) and her fiance Eddie cooked up and transported to our backyard deck a veritable Kenyan feast. We dined on chicken with curry and cilantro, beef stew with red wine and teriyaki, rice pilau (with cloves, cumin, and tumeric), kachumbari (a regional salsa), and spinach in olive oil. Our friends served the dishes with a pungent peanut sauce (made with tumeric, coconut milk, and ginger) and chappatis. Of all the cuisines I've tried, I found this Kenyan fare to be the most eclectic, bringing to one table tastes from all over the world. As if we weren't offered enough variety, the Bonners whipped up a key lime pie and margaritas as alpha and omega to the meal. It was truly an amazing evening!

For years, I’ve been meaning to have my mother-in-law do a cooking demo for stuffed grape leaves and her other Middle-Eastern specialty dishes. Well, Mom’s now 80 and it hadn’t happened yet, so I orchestrated the activity this summer so it would include both my daughters (no small feat when one of them lives on the West Coast and the other on the East—very rarely are we all together and, even then, almost never with Grandmom). See “Julie & Julia—Middle-Eastern Style” for a recap of our adventures

A Wonderful Issue
As always, our dedicated contributors bring so much to our magazine, and this issue is no exception. Chris Slawecki visits Empty Nest once again to share his experiences reconnecting with an academic mentor (and his college-age self) in “Back to School: Pleased to Meet Me.” Memoir author Linda Wisniewski makes her Empty Nest debut with the Perspective “Fledglings,” musing on the progress of a local finch family as well as her own emptying nest. Dr. Dan Gottlieb once again shares his pearls of wisdom, this time on the effect of our personal “Roadmaps,” with a chapter from his book Letters to Sam. In “Real People Empty Nesting,” we meet Leslie Hawke, an empty-nesting ex-pat who founded a nonprofit in Romania to help the impoverished Roma people. (Leslie is mother of actor Ethan Hawke. I worked for her many years ago during our publishing careers and thrilled that we've been able to reconnect.)

Looking back at early summer and college graduations, we visit Sarah Van Anglen and her family to learn about her career choice and how her family is coping, in “A Child’s Life Path: When Your Daughter Chooses the Convent.” Anticipating fall and the plight of new college students in today’s fluctuating economy, aerospace engineer and financial wizard Amie Bonner once again shares her thoughts in "MONEY: Credit Cards for Young Adults: Blessing or Curse?" As always, we appreciate our writers and their insightful contributions.

Speaking of changes, note that you can now search the contents of Empty Nest! So, before, you had to flip through archived issues, but now, if you're looking for one of our contributors or a past article or topic, just use our new Search feature, located in the left margin of each page.

Enjoy the issue!

Robin C. Bonner
Editor, Empty Nest