When I moved into my first real stand-alone single-family on-it’s-own-lot house several years ago, I had so many decisions to make. So many.
Thankfully, I knew exactly what I wanted in the kitchen – a great big table that could fit many, many people.
My youngest brother volunteered to build me an 8’ by 4’ table that would fit the rectangular dining space perfectly – and I quickly told him I would love that so much.
We talked a little about style and shape – and what he produced was even better than what I imagined. He didn’t love the style (mine!) and as soon as he delivered it, he began to second guess what he could have done differently on the shape – but it was perfect for me.
My condo hadn’t had the kitchen space I had longed for, so I intended to use the kitchen in my new home to its fullest.
Over the next few years, that table and I hosted big dinner parties and cookie camps and sister’s gatherings and Thanksgiving and coaching workshops and project nights and birthday dinners. And it hosted me, sitting in that beautiful kitchen, working at my second job after a long day, with my sweet dogs at my feet.
I loved it so much.
It fit the functionality of that room at that season of my life just perfectly.
So, five years later, when I was moving into Darren’s house, I knew the table was coming with me. What I hadn’t anticipated was how it would work in the season I was moving into.
The table didn’t fit. It didn’t fit in our kitchen, it didn’t in the brand new routines and rhythms we were building, it didn’t in our life.
I really, really tried to make it fit. I definitely put it in the completely different-sized dining area and pretended it was fine. But it just didn’t ‘work’ like it had before.
Kendra Adachi, who I like to think of as my big sister on the internet (even though she is much younger than I am), wisely says this about seasons:
“You might have the tendency to see your circumstances as the be-all and end-all and forget that so much is happening within and around you, whether you notice it or not. The more you focus on what your season doesn’t have, the more you’ll despair, compare, resent, and generally feel bummed out. You also miss out on the good that’s right in front of you.
Instead, be where you are.
Do the next right thing.
Live in the season you’re in with open hands so you can receive what it has to offer.
Seasons are bigger than you are. They come and go, and they always invite you to become more of who you already are.
Don’t assume how you live now is how you’ll live forever. Seasons change, and so do you.”
After combining our belongings and actually living together in our house for those first couple years, Darren and I decided the kitchen was not working for baking and the bathrooms were not working for bathing.
We, through some connections and great timing, were able to expand the counter space and cabinets in our kitchen and build a bathroom with a 6 foot tub in the newly finished basement.
Part of the collateral damage in that construction was losing part of our dining area.
The table had to be moved out of the kitchen to make room for a new one.
In the best twist of fate ever, in that construction I also got the office of my dreams. And – you guessed it – I knew exactly what I wanted to use as my great big office desk.
We took apart the table my brother had built for that kitchen and put it back together inside the room that was built for my business. It fit beautifully – with just a couple inches to spare.
Almost like it was made for it.
The dining table that was the perfect table for another season of my life, is now an even more perfect desk for this one.
I can’t wait to hear about how you’re living in the season you’re in. And if you need help receiving what it has to offer, I’d love to help you become more of who you already are.
