One Good Thing

The mixed blessings of an empty nest

[This bird resting in my garden in-between feedings illustrates this truism: Parenting really is an unrelenting slog of finding and providing food for offspring]

They come back every spring — a group of swallows I seem to have developed a sort of hate/love attachment to. They build their nest on the flimsiest possible bit of decor in our messy breezeway …