Mission Moments Blog
The Kitchen Table
If you know me or if you’ve read more than one of my blogs, you have probably realized that I love to read. I love to read eye-opening non-fiction, can’t-put-them-down novels, and even recipes (that I never even plan to prepare). Recently, I have begun to dig into poetry. It is a delightful pastime. I invite everyone to share their favorite poems with me, and I will do the same. I’m finding that the ease of sharing poems (compared to longer books) is one of the best parts of poetry.
Here is a poem that a friend recently read to me and I immediately decided to share it. The message is about family life and all that goes on at the kitchen table…conversation, decisions, encouragement, love, anger, resolutions, laughter, and tears. I imagine that many of us can pause for a moment and think of our own kitchen table growing up…and it will be filled with moments of growth, as well as happy…and sad stories and those hilarious moments that only one’s own family would understand. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
Here is a poem that a friend recently read to me and I immediately decided to share it. The message is about family life and all that goes on at the kitchen table…conversation, decisions, encouragement, love, anger, resolutions, laughter, and tears. I imagine that many of us can pause for a moment and think of our own kitchen table growing up…and it will be filled with moments of growth, as well as happy…and sad stories and those hilarious moments that only one’s own family would understand. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
Perhaps the World Ends Here Joy Harjo 1951
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.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.
From The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (W. W. Norton, 1994) by Joy Harjo. Copyright © 1994 by Joy Harjo. Used with permission of the author.
Who sat at your table? At mine were always my parents and two sisters, of course, but also my grandma and often Uncle Frank. While I did not pay enough attention at the time, I recognize now that they were treasures that enriched my life in many ways. Then, there were all the guests dad would bring home and mom would worry about feeding while the rest of us soaked in the new and different conversations that would flow on those evenings. We saw our dad at his best, such a relentless learner and full of wisdom and a generous heart. If the poem inspired you to recollect, as it did for me, you will begin to remember all you learned around your family’s table.
The idea of a “family around the table” is one to which many of us can relate and is often held up as an ideal in popular culture (just think how many ads you see featuring families coming to, or sitting at the kitchen table.) Reading these lines made me want to encourage everyone to reflect on the moments of family life that they have with their children now. Maybe it won’t be the kitchen table for your family – but make sure that there is a place and a time where all your lives become woven together on a regular basis – a place where memories will seep deep into the hearts of you and your children. Family time shared at the kitchen table makes our families strong and builds lifetime memories. It is truly the place of so many lessons for our children and so many opportunities for parents to share their values indirectly and with patience and love.
