Love Letter for May.....Many around our table.

It has come to my attention recently through stories and lyrics the significance of the table and having many around the table.

When we were little our dining room table seemed enormous. I think because we always had so many around it. There were 12 of us plus anyone else that needed a meal, a secure and safe place to sit and lay down their worries and fears.

I really felt like our family table could sit and hold so many people.

When I walked in today, the table didn't seem so big. Of course I'm bigger now and things did seem alot larger when we were children. But it got me thinking how we did fit so many!

Around my childhood dining table is where we sat and ate Mum and Da's beautiful meals.

Lona would create delicious food from little ingredients, always nutritious and warmed our hungry bellies with taste, love and more love!

Da would create wholesome dough topped casseroles, pizzas, puffaloons (incredible fried dough), scones, foccasias and cups of frothed topped coffees and hot chocolates!!

Around my childhood dining table is where we told of our days activities. Where Da would recite his latest poem. Where prayers were prayed. Where the big conversations were had. Where tears fell and laughter lingered.

It was a table that could tell many a story especially on a Sunday lunch, when my older brothers and sisters and their friends congregated after a big night (some still very happy!!). There was always a baked Sunday lunch and everybody knew about it!

I'm not sure how Mum used to always have enough food for everyone. People would turn up at any hour, most without notice. There was always enough and they were welcomed with open arms and left with a full belly, a heart full of love and a story or two to tell.

I feel so blest to have had a place at this table. I still sit here with a comfort and sense of peace. I know I am so fortunate to have had these experiences and it certainly isn't taken for granted by any of our family members. We know how blest we are.

Our beautiful clever brother, Marty, made and milled the timber for my own family dining room table. It was important to me to have a big table, so we could fit many around it. Just like when I was little. So our table seats 12 too. We did need to take a wall out to fit it in our now home!

I do love filling this table with family and friends, recreating the love, laughter, security and peace of my childhood dining table days.

There's a beautiful song by @joshuaradin "Crowded Table".

'I want a house with a crowded table and a place by the fire for everyone'.....

This was my childhood .

I think it is so important to make an effort, to embrace people, to share a meal, to host with joy in our hearts, to share stories, shed tears, fill the room with laughter.....this is what is remember from my childhood years, not whether or not the dresser was dusted or the carpet vacuum or the toilet cleaned! Sometimes I think we get abit caught up in everything looking right and forgetting about the importance of giving an experience of love, joy and embracing the moments that will just pass us by.

Once we stop inviting people in, the harder it becomes over time. A reminder to us all to just keep gathering people. Drop expectations (really difficult sometimes, but necessary to help us move forward) and accept the light in every heart that comes into your realm.

So many people have called in to Rockfield lately to feel this love again.

What an incredible legacy Mum and Da created here. What incredible teachers for their 10 children of just how to treat everyone and to fill the table with laughter, stories, wholesome food and an accepting embrace.

Thank you dear Da and Mum for providing us all with the time, the essence of how to live a full life with faith, creativity, knowledge, acceptance, kindness, peace and love.

We are so blest and so grateful to you both.

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My greatest love to you all and thank you for reading my 'Love Letters' .

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Love Steph xx