Summer, the Best Season of All
Oh, did I say spring was the best season? Sorry about that—seems I had forgotten about summer. Those long, hot days on the water, and those warm, lazy evenings on the deck. We can’t be more one with the Great Outdoors than we are in summer. And, our talented contributors help us celebrate the winding down of this great season with a wonderful issue.

New contributor Jewel Littenberg spins tales of a lucrative career as an NYC fashion designer, of raising a family, and finally of an encore career as an activist for the elderly in “A Bowl of Cherries: Life and the Empty Nest—They’re What You Make of Them.” Travel agent and cultural tour guide Ellen Coleman convinces us that we, too, can make a Grand Tour, and what better time than when our nest is empty? Ellen shares her own saga of traveling, as well as tidbits from adventures she leads through her company, Excursions from the Square. In “Yosemite: A Jewel in the Crown of America's Great Outdoors,” we are again reminded of why we have summer, and that travel comes in all shapes and sizes. Enjoying with family and friends such exquisite outdoor gifts as this famous national park is one such mode. (Note that our regular feature Real People Empty Nesting will resume with the fall issue.)

In our HEALTH department, Aaron Becker gently reminds those of us with grown children—going off to college or to their first jobs in another city—that attention to personal safety is always a must. In a timely GENERATIONS piece, Dr. Dan Gottlieb recounts to his grandson, Sam, his own college-age “journey inside” and how a certain series of life events for him marked the steps that were necessary to achieve adulthood. Empty nesting isn’t all fun and games (at least not until retirement!), and in our MIND department, we answer the age-old question, “When Is a Job Too Much of a Job”? You may find yourself in that little story. Finally, in “Who Says Grown Kids Don’t Keep in Touch?” a mother and daughter’s month in texts says it all.

The Publication
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My Summer into Fall
Is summer really over? AGAIN? This year, though, I think I’ve finally discovered the best way to let go of it all, and that is to embrace it: Continue to spend as much time outdoors as you possibly can, and let “your senses know the changes when they come. . . . See yourself reflected in the seasons, and understand the need to carry on” (J. Denver). Hey, we all have our coping mechanisms. If I can take my laptop out to the deck in the early afternoon (the only 2-hour window, during which it’s actually warm enough now) to work in the sun, then I find I can more easily make my peace with the sun setting earlier—because it’s all beautiful. I’m remembering days on the lake and at the beach, but at the same time, I’m thinking (with the help of the first leaves falling on that warm deck) of apples and pumpkins. Each season is precious, and even after the best of them, we need to move on.

Before I do, though, I’d like to take a quick inventory of our crazily busy summer: In June, after working hard to get in shape, hubby Gary and I kicked things off with a week in sunny Southern California with daughter Amie and husband Todd, most of it on a picture-perfect camping trip, hiking through Yosemite National Park. At the end of the month, I joined publishing friends Carol and Bonnie for dinner at Beau Monde in Philadelphia, which we figured turned out to be on or about the 10-year anniversary of the closing of the company where we all met, Saunders College Publishing—gobbled up in an international multimedia merger. Gary and I ended June by taking in a live performance of WNYC’s Radio Lab at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. Amazing stuff, especially when we usually only enjoy it in audio.

In July, as things heated up in PA, we hiked in the Blue Mountains on July Fourth and enjoyed a weekend with Gary’s brother’s family near Mystic, CT (and tried our hand at paddle-boarding!). When Father Placid, our good friend from Covenant House NYC, asked Sarah and me to provide music for his retirement mass on July 18, preparing for and participating in that event quickly became the focal point of our month. I headed up to NYC to practice with Sarah on July 15. We also cooked up a plan to head down to Governor’s Island (NY), with a bag of props in hand, intent on blending in with the Improv Everywhere crowd that afternoon. We set our iPhones by the atomic clock, downloaded the IE app, donned our earphones, and waited for instructions, which culminated in amusing synchronized movement by the crowd. God help anyone on the island who didn’t know about it, because they surely thought aliens were taking over. The water gun battle grand finale was the clincher, for sure.

Father Placid’s mass went off without a hitch, despite a soaking thunderstorm just as we emerged from the Lincoln Tunnel. We also had the pleasure of providing music for a mass at our home parish, St. Mary’s, later that same week, when Sarah and boyfriend Dan visited PA for the weekend. Toward the end of July, Sarah decided she wanted to check out some studio apartments in NYC, just to see what she was up against if she decided to make the switch when her lease was up September 1, and, lo, several days after she began her nonchalant search, she was forking over a deposit on, and scrambling to move into, her new place. (Which, of course, meant that Mom and Dad adapted quickly to donate a weekend—and a truck—to the venture.)

In August, we skipped the annual Bonner reunion in favor of the NSC Flying Scot Fleet’s summer picnic, hosted by our good friends Len and Helen at their place along the Delaware River. Lightning sailors ourselves, the invitation was an honor. Bocce and margaritas? I don’t know what true Italians would think of that combination, but I know it found favor with me. Even though we didn’t attend the reunion, Gary’s mother and sister spent the rest of the weekend at our place (an annual postreunion tradition), and so we found ourselves back at Lake Nockamixon on Sunday, taking Karen and 83-year-old Mom out on our 19-ft Lightning—in white caps and winds of 15 to 20 mph. Mom was a real trouper. She gamely sat on the “down side” the entire time, with her back to the water (sometimes more literally than she imagined), plotting to tell her bridge friends all about her adventures later that week, should she live to tell the tale. (And, of course, she did.)

August, summer’s grand finale, was the month of The Boat for the Bonners—much as May/June kicked off that theme when we tried out and purchased a couple of kayaks. As if the kayaks and our good ol’ Lightning weren’t enough for us to deal with on the water, the NSC Thistle Fleet offered an extraordinarily good deal on an old Thistle—enviably lighter and faster than a Lightning—and we eventually succumbed. First thing we knew, we were sailing in a Thistle fleet race, doing our best just to keep from capsizing. We wouldn’t be taking Grandmom out on this baby. We ended the month sailing a “big boat” (Hunter 34) on the Chesapeake, treating Sarah and her delightful friend Lindsay to a long weekend of fun—chartering from Rock Hall, spending Saturday night in Annapolis. We won’t talk about the lightning storms peppering the bay that Sunday afternoon…we’ll just say, again, that we all lived to tell the tale . . .

Soon, October will be here, and I will be heading off for the adventure of a lifetime on a ladies’ trip to . . . more about that in the fall issue! For now, enjoy the Indian summer, getting kids off to high school and college, and living life in general. And, as always, enjoy the issue! Once again, we thank our dedicated contributors, to whom we owe the quality of this publication, and our loyal readers, who ensure its success.

For more about Empty Nest magazine, visit About Us.

Enjoy!

Robin C. Bonner
Editor, Empty Nest