Article March 30, 1998 Issue

Your nest is not empty

"For the first time I really understood that I could never, ever be abandoned by Love. It was a holy moment for me."

By Joan Sieber Ware

I Thought I was well prepared for my oldest daughter's departure for college. I had already done much thinking, praying, listening, and letting go before that day. And yet, when it arrived, I found myself overwhelmed with the situation and full of sadness and dread. Not only was my daughter leaving, but a whole form of family life and much of my job as mother were ending as well. The whole empty nest feeling swept over me.

As the days went on, I struggled with loss and lack of direction. Mired in a rut of depression, I was unable to move forward. Then one day, a statement from Mary Baker Eddy's writings startled me and woke me up. It reads, "Mental darkness is senseless error, neither intelligence nor power, and its victim is responsible for its supposititious presence" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 355). The phrase that gave me a wake-up jolt was "its victim is responsible ...." I had been feeling like a victim under the weight of the circumstances. Now I saw that I had the right, the ability, and the responsibility to move forward.

I needed a better sense of love. I needed a love that was not dependent on any person, circumstance, place, or condition. A love that had no vacuums or voids. I craved God's love, the only love that is big enough, constant enough, and powerful enough to never leave me feeling unloved.

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