Hello friends!
I don’t know about you, but fall is my favorite time of year. The leaves are changing, football is on TV, and my craving for pumpkin spiced everything has gone through the roof (thanks Trader Joe’s!). I do love summer, but there’s something so cozy and special about fall. It’s also a time where millions of moms are experiencing their nests becoming a little bit smaller, or even empty for the first time. That can be hard. As we embrace this season of life, I am so grateful that my book is hitting the market when moms need it most. And I want to share with you a thought that might be comforting: this didn’t happen overnight; beautiful things take time to bloom.
When my middle daughter left for college two years ago, I got a good glimpse at what was around the corner and knew I needed to find a passion project to fill me up on a day-to-day basis. For me, that’s been thinking about all of you, every day. I wanted to create something special to help mothers through the transition I was going through myself. To be a flashlight helping guide you on this unfamiliar path.
For the past two and a half years, I’ve been planting seeds for my book, The Almost Empty Nester, and nurturing ideas & dreams that felt distant at first. But just like tending to a garden (and I am no green thumb), I’m finally realizing that planting the seeds is just the beginning. The roots need to take hold, and that’s what requires time, patience, consistent effort,…and early preparation. It is the nurturing and watering of those seeds that reap the greatest returns.
This is what becoming an Empty Nester is all about: seasons. When your children start to graduate and move out, it is the end of one chapter, and the beginning of another. You start to think about what you want to do when you are an Empty Nester, but those thoughts are just the seeds. The real work lies in watering the soil, helping the roots take hold, and turning those thoughts and dreams into reality.
I invite you to reflect on your own dreams that you have for your Empty Nest. What seeds have you been planting? What do you want to create for your next chapter, and have you started working on that now? It’s easy to feel discouraged when progress seems slow but remember that growth happens beneath the surface before it’s visible. Just like in nature, the most beautiful blooms often take their time.
My book, The Almost Empty Nester, is all about helping you create your next best chapter. To plant the seeds for your Empty Nest long before your last child leaves the house, so your Empty Nest life has already started to blossom. I want to help mothers avoid the feeling of being blindsided due to lack of preparation. And if you are reading this and are already an Empty Nester, that is okay too. You can dive in right here, right now.
As I stand on the edge of becoming an Empty Nester myself, with a senior in high school and two in college, I see my efforts beginning to bloom because I started to prepare sooner rather than later. Not in a drastic way, but by taking small, actionable baby steps towards what I wanted for my Empty Nest. I am so glad I started working on this project two and a half years ago so I could be prepared for the life I am living today, and be in a position to help you. My book is finally coming to life, and I can’t help but marvel at how all those small, steady steps have led to this moment.
If you are reading this and need a guide to help you define what your next chapter can look like, I encourage you to grab a copy of my book. I wrote it for you. You have so many stories, gifts, and dreams inside of you, and the world needs your gifts. Today. I want your next chapter to fill you up as much as the previous ones have. Yes, it will look a little different, but change can be fun and exciting too. I can’t wait for you to explore my book and engage in the reflection exercises designed to help you fall in love with your future again. Let’s nurture those dreams together, one step at a time. The best is yet to come!
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