Two: Can Be As Bad As One

A Choir of Felties!

Enjoying some company and delicious (delicious delicious) baked goods from Antoinette Baking Co.!

Does anyone want to donate some kitchen chairs to the Rittler apartment? Seriously--I had probably 3 dreams when we moved in about chair-hunting (last night I moved on to book-buying, whew), and now I'm writing melancholy poetry about empty chairs (when we don't have any to fill in the first place!). Oh Garage Sale Season, where art thou??
The tragedy about not having chairs for our table is not that I'm getting tired of sitting on our television--it's that it's hard to invite people over to a nice dinner if you're all going to be sharing a couch! Sitting in a line on a sofa just can't be as conducive to conversation as sitting around a table (plus it means you have to put drinks on the floor, maximizes the risk of spilling or burning, etc etc.). Sigh...

Any-whoozle, here is a poem not entirely based on reading Madeleine L'Engle--but she does talk about large family dinners and how she and her husband always found themselves with extra children and adults for meals--or even for extended periods of time. They were a very community-minded, loving family and...if I weren't so darned shy and afraid of awkwardness, we would be, too! (Ha.)

Empty chairs--but two--a quiet table
Not of peace, but wanting company.
Still, it's just two--and we two are unable
To always be perfect community.

At times, two is one hundred. Full. Complete.
At others, two is negative or naught,
A "Welcome, friend!" withheld--that empty seat--
A lack of love and Love himself forgot.

I would be twenty, would be multiplied
Far out of self, cold fearfulness and pride,
Become a place of comort, joy, and rest
To both the asked and unexpected guest.

We're known by love: and Love is not afraid
To fill its home with friendships being made.