Inside In

The word "nest" is everywhere.  From Pottery Barn to Easter decor, nests are in.  Why "nest?"  Why now?  Because tough economic times make us turn inward?  We can't afford to travel, and so we stay at home in our nest?  We are poor because of unemployment and a shaky stock market, and so we try to "feather our nest?"  Maybe. 



But maybe nests are in because they are also sculptural, natural and really quite phenomenal.  This aging birdhouse gourd gave way to a falling limb, offering me an opportunity to recall last summer's countless wren-fly-ins with tiny twigs, and with food.  To witness the recycling of spare feathers.  To imagine family life in a communal cradle.  A nest is the symbol of how few material goods are actually needed to make a house a home--which flies, so to speak, in the face of the wanton commercialization epitomized in "nest."  Nests are in.  Maybe that's not because we want to nest, but because we want to fly.