Have you ever met someone who understands so deeply what
you hold most dear that you just know you would be best friends? This is the
feeling I have right now. To have
another human creature validate and also value what means the world to you is
warming to the very soul. To borrow from Anne Shirley, I have found a kindred
spirit. Shauna Niequist wrote a book called Bread
and Wine where she talks about life around the table. Shauna is not the
first author to focus in on the importance of having the ones you love around
your table. But she is one of the most poetic.
“I’m
not talking about cooking as performance, or entertaining as complicated
choreography of competition and showing off. I’m talking about feeding someone
with honesty and intimacy and love, about making your home a place where people
are fiercely protected, even if just for a few hours, from the crush and
cruelty of the day.”'
This was my first year where I truly lived out on my own.
This was also the first year that I could start to have people in my home as I
wished. My dream, and hopefully reality, was that I could make my house a safe
haven for my friends. I wanted them to feel entirely welcomed and loved when
they walked through those doors, for their shoulders to relax as burdens fell
away, and smiles to spread as stomachs were filled.
Life around the table brings a unique opportunity to be
present in one another’s lives. There is something to be said for hands being
full and hearts being unencumbered. Passing dishes and sharing stories—that is
life around the table. An added element for me is cooking the food. It gives me an opportunity to pour extra
time, love, and prayer into the preparation for those meals. I have found in my limited experience that
nothing transforms relationships quite like welcoming people into your home for
a meal. It conveys a deep care for those that come because to welcome someone
into your house is to welcome them into your life. To read Shauna’s take on the
same concept has been like finding a soul that is a twin to mine. Her most
succinct advice comes from the front jacket “Tell someone you love them and
dinner is at 6.”
