Room at the Table
Let our hearts not be hardened to those living on the margins.
There is room at the table for everyone.
This is how it all begins, this is how we gather in.
There is room at the table for everyone.
Carrie Newcomer
Recently, we were introduced to Carrie Newcomer’s music, and it has enriched our lives. Through her music and in her life of service, she exemplifies living with kindness.
In her song, “Room at the Table,” the table is a metaphor that invites us to contemplate all the meaning that it has for our lives.
It might inspire us to volunteer at a place where we can help to serve food to people in need, but it also has a larger message. It is asking us to see the humanity in people whom we may have been ignoring or judging as not worthy of our kindness. It is asking us to open our hearts and to make room for them in our lives.
Who are we excluding? Who does not have a chair at our table?
There is room for us all,
And no gift is too small.
There's enough if we share.
Come on pull up a chair.
No matter who you are, no matter where you're from,
Here and now we can be the beloved community.
There is no gift too small. We can make a difference with any act of kindness, from a smile and a nod of acknowledgement, to volunteering at a local organization that helps people, to advocating for people on the fringes. We get to choose our contribution, and they all matter.
Too long we have wandered, burdened and undone.
This is how it all begins, let us sing the new world in.
No matter who you are, no matter where you're from,
Here and now we can be the beloved community.
What are the burdens that we carry? For many of us, they are the fears and judgments that cause us to exclude others. Consider the world in which we let go of those fears and did not make those judgments.
How do we become the beloved community?
We begin by asking ourselves, “Who am I excluding from my kindness, my acceptance, my compassion?” We recognize our shared humanity. We realize that every person’s life journey has brought him or her to this point. How they are showing up now does not define who they are.
Perhaps they had never experienced the love that they needed in their lives. This is our opportunity to accept them as they are, to know their name, to hear their story and to realize that their presence in the world matters.
This all seems overwhelming, but Carrie is not asking us to invite everyone in the world to our table. She makes it clear in another song, “Three Feet or So”
When I'm weary lost or sad,
Overwhelmed or just fed up,
I say grace for what I have,
And most of the time that is enough.
When overwhelmed by what is happening in our lives and in the world around us, we can remember to be grateful for what we have in our lives. From that place of gratitude, we can focus on how blessed we are, and that opens within us a desire to help others who are less fortunate.
I can't change the whole world,
But I can change the world I know,
What's within three feet or so.
We are invited to make a difference in our community, with the people right in front of us. There are plenty of challenges within those three feet or so. We will encounter people about whom we have judgments for one reason or another.
This is a call to us to expand our circle of compassion. When we do, we realize that we are all connected, and we all have something to give to and to receive from one another. We discover our kinship.
This is the feast at the table, a celebration of abundance, kindness and kinship.
When we open our hearts and minds to people who need help, we change their lives and ours and the community in which we live. As more and more of us make that choice, together, we are changing the world.
There is room at the table for everyone.
This is how is all begins, let us sing the new world in.
Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
Click here to see videos of Carrie's songs:
Room at the Table
Three Feet or So
If you are in the Asheville, North Carolina area, you might want to attend Carrie's concert on November 11th. Go here to get the details.
I very much appreciate your current message. Small acts can be huge and the more small acts of kindness and compassion the larger the good. In these troubled times we need to be reminded to be an uplifting presence for those to whom we come in contact. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Barb. I appreciate your being part of the kindness community.
I appreciated this question you asked– so much– “Who am I excluding from my kindness, my acceptance, my compassion?”
The following question I pose to all of us is how do we expand our ccircles to meet with and befriend those who are not in our usual community- How do we expand to make space for others who are not easily in our small circles?
Then we can truly do as the song suggests—
I can’t change the whole world,
But I can change the world I know,
What’s within three feet or so.
Being close to nature all weekend among the fiery colors of the maples and beech and aspen trees and sharing it with close friends around our tables, I am re-energized to make more changes and space aroundmy table!
Sending bright reds from the sugar maples and delicate golden yellows from the quaking aspens — all so exciting beyond words.
Thank you, Maxine. I am receiving reds and yellows, and I feel energized by them.
I appreciate your question. How do we expand our circles of compassion to meet those we do not usually include.
I’ll put that out to our community in next week’s post. It’s time to get a discussion going.