Life - A Series of Tables

My small, one-bedroom apartment in Mountain View, California had just enough room next to the kitchen for a small table.  And after visiting, Mum knew that the table where our family sat when I was growing up was just the right size.  She went home to Michigan and had it shipped out to me.  (Apparently, she didn't want me eating all of my meals on the couch in front of the television).  Moms - They never change.  ;)

I lived alone, but often my friends Roberta or Marty would come visit, and we would sit at the table and talk.  Roberta and I often shared cheesecake, and then watched movies, which we still laugh about today, 25 years later.  Marty and I sat in the dark by candlelight eating ice cream that was melting after the 1989 Loma Parieta earthquake had left us several days without electricity.  

After marrying, my then-husband and I bought a new kitchen table.  That one lasted only a couple of years, and then we moved to Berlin.  There, we enjoyed a beautiful wooden dining table, compliments of the US Army furnishing our apartment.  Rory would sit at that table and get his first hair cut, and taste Nutella for the first time too!

After divorcing and leaving Germany, we arrived home in Michigan.  Papa would feed spoonfuls of ice cream to Rory at night, and we would all take turns feeding Ian graham crackers and warm milk.  Papa would "tune" fiddle music for Rory and bounce him on his knee, teasing him about eating sardines when he grows up.  Rory and Ian would just giggle.  They loved sitting at that table with Papa and Beema.

Rory, Ian, and I then moved into a new place, and Beema found a nice, unfinished table that was perfect for the dining area.  She spent weeks varnishing it for me.  A piece of glass to cover it was the perfect touch, and on birthdays or special occasions we would insert photos underneath the glass. The photos made us laugh at the table, tell stories, remember people we loved, and thank God that we had a roof over our heads, and food at the table!

When we found a nicer, more permanent place to live, that table with its glass was placed in the new kitchen, and for a couple of years I shopped for the perfect dining room table.  I'll never forget the day I walked through Sears when they were closing their furniture department.  I saw the table that now sits in my dining room, and knew it was just right.  I then called my friend Michele, and she promptly met me at the mall.  We had to buy it "as is" which meant, we also had to purchase the tools necessary to take it apart to fit in her van.  And we did it!  We fit 8 chairs, and a table and its legs into the van.  (Not impressed?  Well, consider the fact we also fit all four of her children, both of mine, and myself and Michele, and we even stopped for ice cream on the way home!).  Just one of my many adventures with Michele.......

The kitchen table with the glass then became a "desk" for me to work at in the basement, and the solid oak, claw-foot table that the Lord saw fit for me to find on the side of the road (complete with leaf and four chairs!) became the permanent piece for the kitchen, where it now sits...........

All this to say.........

It's as if I have been running a race, raising kids, and the changes lately are big - sometimes too big for me!  One potentially leaving to school in a different state.  One getting married.   Hmmmm, someone's going to need a kitchen table, and I know JUST the right one.......  ;)

It almost sounds as if my life is a series of new tables.  Hey, well, maybe it is after all!  Not sure what all of this means yet, but I'm sure going to sit here at the kitchen table and write about it until I figure it out!