...is a big mistake. And not the kind of mistake I've been encouraging you to make. No, I'm referring to waiting until your life (and your household) is in perfect shape before you invite people over to have a meal, or even a cup of tea. I know this is a mistake because I've been stuck in this trap for several weeks now, much to my surprise.
I love to have people over for dinner. It's one of my top five favorite things to do. (The other four items are secret to all but a select few.) So I've been puzzled as to why this trend is taking hold in my life. There are, of course, plenty of excuses: work is outrageously busy, the budget is outrageously tight, my apartment is beyond outrageous in its messiness.
But the truth is, the most important thing in my life are my friends and family. When I consider what a perfect moment for me would be, it almost always includes a long table packed with people, bottles of wine, platters of food, babies and children and dogs running around underfoot, candles, music, flowers and the tingly feeling of a soft breeze penetrating the thin cotton of my blouse.
So this post today is a reminder to me to not let that picture be just a daydream. Life is far too short to let a few dust bunnies stop the party. And I know that most of the people in my life would be more than happy with a platter of spaghetti and tomato sauce, a simple salad and maybe a few cookies or chucks of chocolate for dessert. So for a few pennies and a swift kick to my house-pride, my perfect moment can be a frequent reality.
So as the old saying goes: The perfect time is always now, the perfect place is always here, the perfect teaching is whatever is right in front of you.
What is your perfect moment and what stops you from making it happen? What perfect moment is in front of you right now?
(Images: Dana)
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My son said something interesting last year, when I was rushing around cleaning the house on a weekend. He said "Mom, to you the house looks messy, but to everyone else it looks great."
True, he has a way of ignoring huge piles of unfolded laundry in front of him (for days!), but I got his point. There is no perfect point of neatness and sometimes you just need to relax...
Well said! Carpe feed-em :D
what a great reminder. A home needs that good energy of a wonderful dinner party.
We have people over for dinner a lot b/c it mean we can see friends and not have to pay for a sitter. Our child goes to bed at 7 so it means time for a quick hello for him and then off to bed, and adult time for us and our guests. Last night we had friends over who are real foodies and I so enjoyed planning out the menu (I made goat cheese stuffed chicken breasts as featured here!) and we all had a great time. I love to go out to eat, but nothing is more meaningful than sharing a homemade meal with close friends. Bravo to this post.
How wonderful! Candles are wonderful for allowing dust bunnies to simply live their life rolling joyfully along. As we do the same. Salut!
This is so very true.
I'm always getting caught up in living space perfection.
Reminding myself that everyone has differing levels of perfection and/or acceptability, not to mention seeing how some of my friends and acquaintances live, always brings me back down to earth.
nicodemusgreen.etsy.com
Heartfelt post; I thank you. Got me reflecting, appreciating, motivating.
Our place is small without a real dining room or sufficient space for serving dinner, but when I think about it - how many great and memorable dinners have I enjoyed at other folks' houses when we never even neared the table? Plenty. It's the energy, company, and conversation that makes the experience, and I've been putting it off for too long.
I hear you, I could spend the next five years waiting until the house was done being fixed up before having people over for the perfect meal. But home ownership means you're never really done. This weekend while the bottom of our floor awaits it's tile before we can put our kitchen in, we had a very casual bbq. No one seemed to mind that we had to wash the dishes in the bathroom.
This is a post for our times, and among the reasons why I appreciate this website so much more than the "house porn" typical shelter books....that make you feel like you've got to have formal seating and place settings for 12 people before you can have a proper dinner party. Perhaps it's that dangling of an impossible dream that makes people unhappy with what they already have, and makes them rack up credit card bills trying to get some or part of the dream. Bravo to AT for posts like this, and on a related note, to the Small is Cool contests. This post is all about the mood of the moment that I'm trying to hold onto from the Obama inaugration! Thank you!
I am always guilty of the last minute rush to clean (in fact, I've invited people over just so it WILL get clean) and never have as much time as I wanted...
I said something on twitter about not having the place as ready as I wanted, and friend reminded me they were coming to see ME, not my home. So I'll still do the rush, but with a little more leniency if I can't get everything perfect! And like mentioned above, candlelight hides a multitude of sins :P