Okay okay, so maybe it's sung "material world," but let's face it, we are living in a disposable world. I have just returned from visiting my cousins in Sweden, a trip that blew my socks off......literally. *kaboom* I have spent the past few days sorting out all of my thoughts and feelings about this amazing trip to my motherland or better said my grandmotherland as my late far mor was from Sweden. There is so much to write about my family and my heritage, but that is for another day, today I am writing about something that has been gnawing at the back of my brain since my feet touched English soil and that something is......tableware. Really, tableware? A trip to Sweden and you are home thinking about tableware?! I know it sounds nuts, but my thoughts are justified.
The day after we returned home I hit my cupboards and I hit them hard. All plastic cups, plates, knives, forks, spoons and paper napkins.....gone. I don't know if it is an age thing or a life experience thing, but this girl who once advocated disposable fashion is speedily becoming an advocate of longevity. Let me explain myself. As we sat at the table with Gunilla and Lars-Göran each morning for breakfast we noticed that the table was set with beautiful dishes, glasses, egg cups, and silverware, there was a candle lit in the centre, there was an abundance of healthy delicious foods that were supported by inspiring conversations about heritage, tradition, and family. As we sat and ate, Gunilla and Lars-Göran expressed the importance of eating together as a family and how they believe that it supports and strengthens the family, a belief that John and I whole heartedly share, but something was different here than at home. I thought about what the difference was and it came to me, Gunilla and Lars-Göran had set their table with beautiful dishes, glass dishes, glass glasses, the table was set as if to say "you are important, you matter to us."
I had one of those "ah ha" moments when I thought to myself, "how does your table reflect on the way your family feels when they sit together?" I am a girl who eats on plastic dishes and my kids have eaten on IKEA plastic cups, plates, spoons and bowls since they were born, but I have realised that my kids deserve better than plastic plates and wondered to myself "why am I not using glass dishes?". I tossed out the old plastic bits and bobs and immediately replaced that empty shelf with my glass plates, glass glasses and then went to a charity shop where I filled in a few gaps with some other glass bits to make our set complete. I have committed myself to making meal time a time where my family sits together feeling like I have prepared the very best I have for them.
Sure I am probably increasing my dish washing load, but with our disposable world we have also tossed out the great conversations that arise washing and drying dishes together, "I rinse, you dry." I know it sounds a bit cheesy and maybe a bit over the top for some, but as I have pondered about the way we throw things out when it loses it's style, or our interest, I have thought about how our plastic world has made the things that matter most as disposable as the plastic cups and bottles we toss out and that is our relationships. I know that swapping my plastic table setting out for my (charity shop) china isn't going to change the world, but I do believe that it will make a difference in the way my family feels when we sit around the table together. My kids will know that my best dishes are not just for company, but for my family, because they are special they matter the most and they are worth it.
