The idea for this song came from a visit to an Albert Einstein exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in NYC with my father in law Harry. There I read the following:

Sitting at his post in the Bern patent office one day in 1907, Albert Einstein imagined how a housepainter would experience gravity if he fell off a roof. On that day, the physicist's daydream ended with what he later called his "happiest moment." 

He surmised that the unlucky painter would feel weightless when accelerating toward the ground. 

"If a person falls freely, he won't feel his own weight. This simple thought made a deep impression on me." - Albert Einstein.

Leaving the exhibit I told Harry I was going to write a song inspired by what I had read. What struck me in the above passage was the combination of a “happiest moment” and “weightlessness”. Coupling these with gravity, as in the heaviness of life, from grave, “likely to produce great harm or danger”,  made for a potent song cocktail.

I like this song because of the repetitive chord progression freeing up the melody and lyric to take center stage. I like the fact "Empty Nest" can be easily misheard as "Emptiness", as both fit the theme. I am also very proud of the guitar lead which sets up and concludes the song.

In performing the song live with the band the coda of the song was spontaneously discovered. One of the joys of live performance is unanticipated inspiration.