Saturday, January 30, 2016

The calm before (and after) the storm

The variety of photos in this gallery taken from Dona Schwartz's book On The Nest, together with the accompanying quotes from their subjects, capture perfectly that moment immediately before a first child is born: a mixture of excitement, nervousness, anxiety and an awareness that life is about to change dramatically. It's a moment I remember well.

But the gallery also includes pictures of empty-nesters - those whose children have now moved out. As Tim Dowling observes in his introductory blurb, they look "even more bewildered. Nobody really tells you about that bit". That much is true - it's not something we've even thought about, though I'll be grateful for the fact that the floors in our house will no longer be carpeted by food or toys apparently designed to cause maximum pain when accidentally stood upon.

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