Love in Our Lives
Love. (Doesn’t every magazine do a Valentine’s Day issue?)

We use the word freely, but at least once a year it’s good to take stock of what it really means. (There’s something to be said for annual cycles!) Winter is a great time for it, too. After all, we’re in the dead of the year—too long after the holidays to remember them—and we’re in need of a pick-me-up. What could be better than to think about what we love? It’s the key to our happiness.

As for me, I love my husband Gary (still just the cutest thing), my daughters Amie and Sarah (and now son-in-law Todd)—the absolute lights of my life, my mother-in-law Anaise, my relatives, and my dear, dear friends. I love the joy of writing, making music with others, and so many other things. And, here in the dead of winter, I’m ready to celebrate them all—how about you? After all, “Love is a light that shines from heart to heart” (J. Denver, Seasons of the Heart), and what better time for it?

Love in the Issue
Well, risking the cliché, we’ve organized the issue around what we love. We love our children just enough to let them go, and ourselves just enough to love again (see associate editor Bonnie Boehme’s review of Catherine Goldhammer’s Winging It: Dispatches from an (Almost) Empty Nest). We love our spouses, to the point that we’ll weather their illnesses with them, even if it means traveling to the brink of grief and back (see Marian Buckner’s COUPLES column, “Love: When Time Stops”). We love our avocations (see “Writing: Answer to Midlife Crisis?”) and our hobbies (”The Armchair Traveler: Traveling Through Space and Time with Stamps”; we welcome Jeremy Lifsey, new to Empty Nest).

We love where we live (welcome back, Ellen Britz Gerber): MOVING ON “San Diego: More than a Beach.” We love what we do every day (see “Real People Empty Nesting: An Interview with Sandra D. Long”; Long is vice president of operations at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News and still a big journalism enthusiast after all these years). And we love our elders, for their caring and their wisdom (see “Celebrating Age: This Woman Deserves a Party”). Above all, though, we have compassion for our fellow humans, and by doing so make the world a better place. We’re honored to welcome back psychologist Dr. Dan Gottlieb, author of Letters to Sam: A Grandfather’s Lessons on Love, Loss, and the Gifts of Life. Dan has allowed us to reprint the chapter “Compassion Works Both Ways” from his book, and I guarantee it will move you to tears. Dan’s lessons on love are always right on target.

Enjoy the issue!

Robin C. Bonner
Editor, Empty Nest