GRACE

I'm sure by now everyone here knows that Chris and I are not religious. That's not to say that we are not spiritual. I personally believe in something, something that makes all want to be good and kind and loving. I just don't like giving it any sort of name or label. But recently we've started saying (OK, by "we" I mean me) grace before eating our evening meal. It started last week when I cooked our first meal in the new place. I mean really cooked. Not just opening a can and heating up something on the stove. Cooked. As in chopped vegetables, sauteed and simmered stuff. And here is where I run a little off course to tell you about our table. Stay with me; this goes somewhere. The week we were here looking for a place to live, Chris and I found a little table at a junk shop that we thought would be perfect for our new dining area. We even found chairs that would work with it. So we said we'd come back for it the next week. We went home, packed up stuff, found a vintage side table I had picked up at the flea-market a few years ago hiding in storage, loaded all into a truck and headed this way. We went back to the junk shop to get the table...and it was gone. Then Chris said "Wait! That table! That table you bought!". And he was right. The flea-market table turned out to be perfect. And the chairs we had spotted the previous week were still there and they fit perfect too. Get it? That other table was gone because we didn't need it. Oh Universe.

So back to that first meal. We set the table and sat down with our little plates of fresh salad and bowls of homemade soup and it all looks so wonderful. So wonderful that I look at Chris and said "I kind of feel like we should say grace over this meal". He replies "You wanna say grace? Say it". So I did and it's stuck around, like it's something we do now. It usually goes something like this: "Dear Whoever, Thank you for this lovely meal we are about to consume. Thank you for the many blessing we have and friends and family we love. Please watch over them and keep them safe. So say we all". Chris added that last bit.