I had a new table delivered this week for our lanai. It is enormous! It is 10 feet long, 4 feet wide, and can comfortably seat 10.
As this was a substantial purchase, I started saving for this table last year. Prior to the pandemic. Pre-Covid19. During the time when we routinely had people over. Weekends would often find us cooking for friends or family. Holidays our house was full. And several times a year we threw parties with guest-lists nearing a hundred.
Then the pandemic hit and our house grew very quiet. Social distancing and solitude set in. At first the forced-quarantine was a nice respite. We enjoyed weekends of movies, reading, and puttering around the house and garden. We got caught up on projects and pastimes. We were not totally isolated, as we continued to spend time with our small, immediate family members who are in our social-bubble. As the months wore on, we had a few socially-distanced driveway cocktail hours with neighbors. But no gatherings, entertaining, or big celebrations. Those are still on hold.
Yet in spite of that, I was ready to buy the table. I wanted to see its promise. The potential and possibility.
Many decisions and choices we make now are not made based on our current situation, but on the potential and possibility that is tomorrow. That was how I felt when finally going to order this wonderful table. I know that it may sit empty for a while. That we may only fill a few chairs, and that it may seem massive and barren. But now there is potential. Now there is possibility.
The table now sits ready. For dinner parties, cocktail parties, BBQs and brunches. I acknowledge that we will not be having our usual enormous holiday party in December, but I hope we will be having some smaller gatherings. I admit our Thanksgiving has shrunk to just the social bubble of immediate family, but that is something.
It is the beginning. And my new table is ready.
Wishing you possibility and potential!
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