When Tom and I moved into our first home 20 years ago, we bought our first, real kitchen table. It was sturdy, solid oak, and had room enough for six. At the time, it was only Tom, Kenzie and me, but that table followed us as we added Taylor to our family, moved two more times, invited people over for meals, and used it as a place to do homework, roll out Christmas cookies and dye Easter eggs. Last weekend, I said goodbye to our long-time friend, as we passed it along to a family with four young kids. I breathed a sigh of relief as I watched the table and six chairs leaving on the back of their truck, knowing that it would be well used and loved just as much.
That very same weekend, we ventured out to find our new table, and it got me thinking how this new table would be a central part of our next 20 years. It’s a glass top table – now that the kids are older, no worries about someone falling and breaking a tooth on it (well, we still have Taylor at home). It is counter-height – no need to pull a high chair up to it. The chairs are leather – don’t have to stress over them being torn up . . . well, again, we still have Taylor. And, it only seats four, nice and comfortably. Sort of like the next phase of our lives, or so I imagine it to be.
Like the song Landslide goes, “time made you bolder, children get older, and I’m getting older too.” Well, I am. Bolder and older, that is. Bold enough to get rid of the past and move confidently into the future as our family morphs into a new phase. Older as I watch our kids become adults. And, when we all come back together on one of those special evenings where we can sit around our new table to talk, eat, and laugh, I think, go ahead and get finger prints all over the new glass table. I just love spending time with you.
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