It is not always necessary or wise to hang onto rituals or traditions.  Sometimes they are no longer appropriate to a new situation.  But the loss of one of the finest customs of the past is a dinner invitation to someone’s home.  In today’s world where time is at a premium,  often dinner invitations take place in a nearby restaurant.  Gone is the intimacy of someone’s home,  their living space.  And the time to form deep attachments.  It was always a something special in my life and deeply cherished.  It was a time to show my guests how much I loved them.  And worth the time to bring out the linen tablecloth and to clean the silver.  My regret is that we did not do it often enough. 

After The Gathering. . .

I take the lemon wax and spray
and wipe to a fine polish the table
where food and love have been served.
I take the memories
from the last gathering and
camp them in a new place,
to be taken out in another time
by those whose work it is
to be the keeper of memories.

The table has changed places
as have the memories.
It is in place now and already
others have seated and supped.
New memories are being shaped
by those whose need within
is a hunger to touch places
too long isolated.

It is for each other we do this.
We bring together our selves
for the fine art of fleshing out
the canvas where we have painted
our lives to create a memory
for a world where none was before.

The memory will be our proof that we came and we were.