A Pinch of Follow-Through

When your children leave the nest, and you don’t work in some “professional capacity,” (because apparently you don’t get credit for drawers filled with clean socks, a full refrigerator and food on the table), there is often a search for purpose and fulfillment. How are we contributing to society? What mark will we leave on the world? For those of you happily content to play Mahjong, you lucky ducks, read no further.

Although, I wonder, are we too hard on ourselves? Don’t we deserve some rest after our children become independent? We have cared and nurtured these beautiful human beings with every fiber of our being, just so they can fly safely on their own. We’ve wiped noses, nursed them through the night, counseled and consoled them. We’ve volunteered at their schools, some of us continued showing up even after graduation. (That might have been me.)

At the end of the day we want to feel accomplished and for that we need follow-through. I started a dried wreath and straw hat business when my children were in elementary school. Not a huge calling for dried flowers on a hat. I still have enough business cards to wallpaper a bathroom. I wrote a children’s book and there are enough rejection letters to wallpaper my kitchen. I have a book three quarters of the way done. I even have a new desk, just for my rarely used laptop, which mocks me as I pass by. Of course there are many published articles for me to hang my hat on, but I seem to have lost all drive. I could blame it on writer’s block, but I won’t. I have no routine as of late - so not like me. But I do envy writers who do.

My dear friend Maggie Mae, is in a funk, searching for that intangible to bring her fulfillment. She is an empty nester, with lots of interests and talents, among them, knitting and needlepoint, which she rarely seems to finish. This irritates Maggie to no end. Recently she came upon squares she knitted for a blanket, in a multitude of colors, which remained unfinished. Suddenly inspiration and determination collided and she knitted them together, not the size she intended, but perfect for her mother to cozy up with on her lap. What an accomplishment to have completed a project. Maybe not what she originally planned, but happy nonetheless to get those squares taunting her out of the house and put to good use. That my friend, is follow-though!