Mulberry Street

A whirlwind of a weekend on the heels of the holidays has concluded with our depositing our youngest daughter safely at college.  Today concluded her second day of classes and based on her emails and a quick phone conversation she is enjoying her new life, her new friends, her apartment and even her professors.

As I've watched her grow over the past couple years I have seen an intelligent, funny, caring, aware, talented woman begin to take her place in the world.  I expect to see the rapid rate at which she continues to grow and develop to increase exponentially over this next semester.  Her confidence is already beginning to assert itself in her ability to confront and handle change and new circumstances.

This leaves Jana and I, tonight, concluding our second full day of empty-nestedness.  The house is quiet, even with Jana having taken off two extra days "just to settle".  She is a purposeful woman.  She attacks the day with a steady pace that moves her from one task to the next predetermined task without a moment of lost energy.

Arielle's bedroom is now spotless and dejunked, the "kids' bathroom" is scoured and Jana is ready to a pursue our next stage in life.

Jana is one of the most honestly cheerful people I know.  When she comes home from work it's like the whole house lights up.  She doesn't come home carrying the burdens of a "hard day at work".  She virtually bounces in the house, hangs up her keys in the kitchen, makes a pit stop then often comes in and bounces onto the couch that sits in my office directly in front of my desk.

"How was your day, sweetheart?" I ask.

"Oh, just fine.  I just plowed through my stack of patient accounts. And, oh, I have to tell you a story ..."

whereupon she relates an entertaining slice of life she had seen or overheard during the day.  When she comes home it's almost like rereading "To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street" by Dr. Suess.

Jana makes our home a bright, happy place; she is totally content with her life as she goes about making each day an adventure of simple pleasures and found joys.  The way she lives her life is, to me, a loving thing as she somehow decided long ago that life was meant to be enjoyed and adventure can be found in the dirt trap of a vacuum cleaner, on the faces of those she loves and in the 3/4 of a mile distance between home and where she works.

My daughter is starting a new and exciting life as she grasps the adventures of college.  It's beginning to settle in that I likewise get to start a new and exciting life as I grasp the adventures that await Jana and I in the simple things, the loving things, of our life.

Does anyone know of any upcoming adult education couples' classes on "Cooking for Two, Again"?
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IF YOU WOULD, PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO COMMENT ON ONE OF THE LOVING THINGS, SMALL OR GRAND, THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM SOMEONE IMPORTANT TO YOU.