It was never in the living room. Our lives happened around a slab of wood. Our kitchen table was a sacred space growing up. We did the hard work of developing our beliefs and our character, asked big questions and shared all of our dreams. We fumbled over apologies and worked on humbling ourselves enough to ask for help. It was the spot for homework, dinners, celebrations, mourning, building and mending relationships, and everything else in between. Our family loves to eat and we believe in the beauty of sitting around a table together. “We don't come to the table to fight or to defend. We don't come to prove or to conquer, to draw lines in the sand or to stir...
Normal, daily life ticking by on our streets and sidewalks, in our houses and apartments, in our beds and at our dinner tables, in our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets – this pedestrian life is the most precious thing any of us will ever experience.”
We went berry picking last summer and my youngest decided she wanted to carry each one she picked. After a while she started dropping berries - one, two, three, four - one after the other. It made us laugh a couple of times and then she gradually became more frustrated with her lack of coordination. We offered her a basket but she didn't think that was the solution and so the dropping continued. She wanted to do it by herself. It's not news to anyone that the world is hurting right now. Everyday it seems like we hear about another fire, another violent situation, another alarming statistic, and all of this on top of the pain in our personal lives....
I'd rather everything stay the same than face the adjustments of change. There have been seasons of my life when everything feels settled and as it should be. There have also been seasons where I've felt uprooted, unsettled, and out of place. Several seasons involved losing close friends and family - to new jobs and new cities, to illness, and to simply growing apart. I've walked away from many of these seasons wondering why I put in the effort to love deeply, fully, and intentionally if people are just going to leave. It is hard work to open yourself up and deepen relationships. It requires a lot of vulnerability to welcome people into your limitations and struggles, which makes it even more difficult when those relationships...
