Never The Empty Nest

So, love can get noisy, with all the languages it speaks, right? In this episode we dissect them all – gift-giving (mamma bird is getting an eternity ring!), acts of service, PDA, words of affirmation and so much more. We also talk about how these love languages are maybe conditioned? How they evolve, and how they can expand to help us when we speak and interact with the rest of the world – social justice, baby!  Shed a little love, shed a little light. 

From Winnie the Pooh, to baking bread with our grandfather, to the beauty of bountiful meals and the horror of eating disorders. From popcorn cheats to learning Italian and dreaming of pasta. It’s all here as we dive into the moments that bring us together around the table, from the stove top of our hearts to yours. You’re going to get hungry, so bring a snack. 

When Marta and Maria Irene couldn’t find a summer camp that felt right for their kids, they built their own. One that included cooking and food from around the world, music, and, most importantly, one that spoke Spanish. When they’re not building a summer camp, Maria Irene teaches Montessori and Marta helps victims of human trafficking and domestic abuse. Plus we get a gem of a love story – an impossible love, divided by a dictatorship, made possible through the support of family. 

Katherine Vaz and Christopher Cerf married late in life (Katherine was 59; Chris was 73) – made their nests by the time they’d already flown around the world a few times. Katherine also happens to be the author of the first Portuguese-American novel published by a big house and Christopher is known for being one of the original members of the “street gang” that made Sesame Street and, potentially, the world’s most well known nest (Big Bird’s!). Together, we talk about thinking in color, the families that build us up, the games we play, and the deposits of love that make us who we are.

Jackie poses a question: Do we lose our intuition the older we get? The girls rebut with: Or do we just get smarter? What does instinct have to do with survival and love. What does analysis have to do with depression? All questions that arise in this episode, as the birds chirp about adoption, big moves, the discernment process, and Spain. Yoda mom leads the way.

It sounds idyllic: birds huddled around each other for warmth in a bed set up by a clever, loving mamma bird. But keeping that nest together is harder than it looks. Americans, it turns out, are more estranged than ever from family members, while, at the same time, they have more multi-generational households than ever. What’s going on?  Vanessa, Nicole, and Jackie dig into what it means to hold the nest together, restructure it when you have to, boot people out, keep others in. Toxic tolerance, love, fuel, and the importance of: “I love you no matter what…” --- the ladies hash all this out in this episode.

In this episode Vanessa, Nicole, and Jackie perch themselves at the edge of their nest to chirp out and introduce themselves as well as what “Never the Empty Nest” means and where the idea comes from. They talk about generational nesting, which Jackie calls an experiment. One that reaches, at least for them, all the way back to a family bed in Lanaja, Spain, through to Cuba and now stretches across the United States from Miami to California. 

An experiment in generational nesting which is, in essence, the ways in which family holds together throughout the lives of its members, their joys, their hardships, their care, their living, breathing roots, and legacies in the making. It’s never too early or too late to add a twig to the nest and roost!