The Kitchen Table

The office.  The boardroom table.  The coffee shop.  The hub.  The kitchen table serves as all of these things.  Though it was originally meant to be a place where people gathered to break bread, on the farm, it is much more than that.  All my life, the kitchen table was where the action happened.

My grandparent's kitchen table on the ranch was where everyone gathered for coffee, holiday meals, card games, to grieve deaths, to celebrate various occasions.  There was never a lack of coffee in the morning and in the evenings, the beer and whiskey would come out.  I spent many hours of my life at that table.  It is where Grandma taught me and my sister to cut paper dolls and clothes, where we played hours upon hours of crib and Yahtzee, where we ate meals when I got to stay overnight.  My parents home was and continues to be no different.  Morning coffees are had and plans for the day are made.  When company comes, the table gets pulled out from the wall and we grab more chairs.

Thousands of dollars are spent on living room and dining room furniture in so many farm homes and yet they rarely get used.  In our own house, despite my efforts to make it otherwise, it seems so often we gather around the table.  Many a card game has been played around our table over the years.  Probably a few wine and whiskey drank as well.  I have been using it as my office while doing bookwork and schoolwork as I can see out my front window as the world goes by.  It is where we gather to talk business as everyone can get their notebook out if necessary.

One thing that I think is so important is sitting down at the kitchen table to break bread together.  Our kids are 18 and just shy of 16 now and it was a rare week where we didn't sit down at the table together for dinner at least 5 nights a week.  That is through years of 4-H, soccer, basketball, volleyball, social lives, ranching and more.  Some nights we didn't sit til 9:30pm, but we sat.  There is something to be said for spending some dedicated time together as a family around the table.  Talking to each other, listening to each other.  Without that one meal a day together, it would be easy to lose touch with what is happening with your kids.  I think that over the years, one of the reasons we were able to have such an open relationship with our kids is because we had that time together.

There are families out there that everyone dishes up at the stove and disappears to their own space to eat.  I find that unfathomable.  It is incredibly rare that we do not sit at the table to eat.  Even if it is only two of us.  So many memories would be missed, moments wouldn't be shared, hard topics wouldn't be covered and supportive conversations would not happen in the same way.  It would be so easy to lose touch with each other if you don't dedicate some time to just be present in each other's lives.  We live in a world where everyone wear's their "busy"ness as a badge of honour, regaling friends and family with how much we fit into a week.  When we get down to basics, though, we often let the important things slide to ensure we keep up with whomever it is we feel we need to keep up with.

The kitchen table - it's a place to parent, a place to be a kid, a place to form friendships, celebrate life, grieve death, vent, drink coffee and so much more.  Where would a ranch or farm family be without this integral part of their lives?  Can you imagine your own home without this central piece of furniture?  As I think about the many friends we have in agriculture and the homes I visited as a site visit in my time as an agricultural lender, the kitchen table is where it's at.  It's where everything is at.  My only wish is that everyone would buy more comfortable kitchen chairs!  (Mom, Dad - you know I am talking to you!)