In Joyce Rupp’s recent newsletter she shares the notion of the stories and memories that our tables at home keep for us. She quotes the poet Joy Harjo, “ The world begins at a kitchen table./no matter what, we must eat to live./The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table./So it has been since creation, and it will go on.”

This recalls for me a cross-stitch piece I once had framed that hung over our table that read, “An acquaintance becomes a friend at the kitchen table.” I’ve always favored round tables for their ease at being able to see every face gathered around them. Kitchen tables quite often are smaller in size than dining room tables, and as such provide a warmth and intimacy like no other. It’s much more difficult to maintain emotions such as anger or hostility when you are so physically close to the person or persons sitting with you at a small, round kitchen table! There is something disarming in such a space, something that moves a human being toward the Other!

For many years now, whenever I’m invited to give a workshop or retreat session, I as for the room to be dismantled if there are chairs in rows with a podium up front!! I gently ask for us all to pitch in and rearrange the chairs into a circle. Immediately, the space is transformed! No longer am I the “expert” speaking AT the folks before me, but I sit AMONG them as their equal and companion on the journey! Stories are much more easily told…emotions flow freely, and what perhaps might never have been said, is shared openly. A circle…a round table of its own accord proclaims, “Everyone is welcome here…you are one of us…we want to hear your story…we will carry it for you!”

As the weeks hurry by in this month of November, and if you are one of the lucky ones inviting or being invited to a table for Thanksgiving, i invite you to hold the notion that this humble piece of furniture, no matter its shape, encircles those present inviting us to be kind, reverent, open, forgiving and gentle toward all who will gather with us. This table, in turn, will hold that kindness and all the stories shared that day and join them with the countless others everywhere that this wonderful feast is celebrated. It’s pretty awesome to ponder just at how many tables this will be happening, and HAS happened for countless years! And for this, and so many other gifts, we are grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and a month of November that finds you taking extra care to polish your tables, set them with grace, and honor them for the memories they will carry.

May all the people of the earth one day feel invited to inclusive, round, safe tables to humbly share their stories…may these stories spill over into peace in the world!