The Kitchen Table

I wrote this a while back but decided to edit it, well actually was told to edit it thankfully.

The Kitchen Table is in all its glory a place where almost everyone sits, thinks, talks, eats, cries, laughs and otherwise rejoices in life with friends, family and occasionally by yourself.

As I stood washing the leftover dishes, from someone's late-night snacking, I noted that standing there I had enough time to think things over. See, with my schedule I don't usually have much time to think. I run basically on auto-pilot most of the time. Noting this, I realized how much we take a simple little item for granted.

The kitchen table, the place that everyone sits to share those cups of coffee, glasses of tea, laughs, talks, and jokes with friends and family. This is the same place we sit to reminisce, cry, and seclude ourselves when our hearts are breaking. A place we sit our children to imagine, color, draw and do their homework. It brings us together with our families for meals and to talk over the days' happenings.

Sometimes mine now becomes a dropping place, for anything that does not find another place to lay or should I say its a game of run and squirt, for the cat and myself, who obviously thinks the table was built exclusively for her pleasure to torment me these days!

Holiday after holiday, year after year, this simple piece of furniture is no more thought of, then say your fork, but its there, constant in our lives, just like breathing. If it could talk, imagine all the things it could tell you. It has felt all the spills; from stories to drinks, been pounded on, kids with crayons, nail polish splatter and every piece of food to whatever imaginable on it. Isn't it amazing how that one piece of furniture holds all those secrets, good times, bad times and even the daily gossip simply by just being there?

I know its a bit out there with this line of thought, but the next time you sit at your table, really look past the structure, the wood, marble, or Formica. Look at those chips, those dents, unremovable splatters, even the burn marks and those tell-tell signs of age.

Each individual mark would tell its own story. So close your eyes and see who and where those people are in your life. They have sat and enjoyed, laughed, eaten, and cried at your table. Some have bowed their heads, given thanks, and rejoiced with you. Others have sat without hope, faith or love, just waiting for the evening to be over. Children have restlessly waited for dessert or snuck food items to the family dog.

The only thing I have left now is a "clean" table, waiting patiently on the next visit, next friend or family member to grace my door.

I hope that in your busy day, you get the chance to stop, sit and enjoy that simple piece of furniture, maybe, just maybe, you will feel that small hint of love that we bestowed on our family members and friends.

With any luck, some family or friends will come and leave their mark, not only on your table but on your heart as you do theirs.

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