New direction Step 1: Change the house

The transformation begins: the night before the wall came down

My husband loved this wall.  It separated the playroom from the telly room and gave him a private space to practise the piano.  In fact he loved the wall so much that for 29 years he refused, point blank,  to knock it down.

Finally I persuaded him.  The wall's gone.

It used to feel so sad, the prospect of staying in the house where the kids grew up, with just the two of us instead of five.  The place was full of memories - good and bad.  You could feel the kids' absence in every room.

And when they first left I didn't feel like redecorating.  The dust needed to settle.   Anyway what was the point?  We might move,  downsize, like so many empty nest couples.

Moving is a much clearer statement that you're moving on yourself.   I don't rule it out.   But for the time being a revamp feels just as good as a move. The memories are still in the ether, but they've been scattered to make way for new ones, a different energy.  The blood's still on the walls, but it's been covered with a fresh coat of paint. This feels like a brand new start for a totally new kind of life.