{"id":3123,"date":"2014-10-17T08:58:25","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T13:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=3123"},"modified":"2014-10-17T08:58:25","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T13:58:25","slug":"the-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2014\/10\/17\/the-kitchen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<figure id=\"attachment_3125\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3125\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2014\/10\/BVS-Elgin-house-dinner.jpg\" alt=\"Sharing a meal at the BVS house in Elgin\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2014\/10\/BVS-Elgin-house-dinner.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2014\/10\/BVS-Elgin-house-dinner-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3125\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Friends share a meal at the BVS house in Elgin, Illinois<\/figcaption><\/figure>By Katie Cummings<\/p>\n<p>In my house<br \/>\nWhen I want to be with<br \/>\nSomeone<br \/>\nI come<br \/>\nTo the kitchen<br \/>\nAnd I sit<br \/>\nAt the kitchen table.<br \/>\nOrganically people may<br \/>\nEmerge\u2014<br \/>\nStretching on the floor after a run,<br \/>\nShuffling pots and pans for dinner,<br \/>\nReading a book in the glorious sun.<br \/>\nIt is the heartbeat of our home,<br \/>\nThumping to daily rhythms.<\/p>\n<p>In the midst of cooking,<br \/>\nThe kitchen becomes\u2014<br \/>\nA stage<br \/>\nOur impromptu dance parties<br \/>\nFilling the spaces between<br \/>\nLinguine and cheddar cheese<\/p>\n<p>With a warm cup of tea<br \/>\nAnd a listening ear\u2014<br \/>\nI\u2019ve stepped into<br \/>\nA therapy session<br \/>\nThe linoleum floor bouncing back<br \/>\nThe sacred words of our hearts.<\/p>\n<p>With a hefty bag of thrifted finds\u2014<br \/>\nThe fluorescent lights reflect<br \/>\nThe dazzling uniqueness of<br \/>\nA fashion show that only cost<br \/>\nTen dollars.<\/p>\n<p>In the heart of our home\u2014<br \/>\nThe kitchen<\/p>\n<p>Our dancing stage<br \/>\nCan easily deteriorate to<br \/>\nAn arena.<br \/>\nWith a warrior on either side<br \/>\nPoised<br \/>\nFor a death match.<\/p>\n<p>The vibrations of the floor<br \/>\nReverberating<br \/>\nAngry words and weighty sighs\u2014<br \/>\nSlammed doors and broken conversations.<\/p>\n<p>The fluorescents illuminate<br \/>\nThe cracking pieces\u2014<br \/>\nShining lights into the deepest,<br \/>\nDarkest,<br \/>\nMost selfish parts of<br \/>\nOurselves.<\/p>\n<p>And yet,<br \/>\nThose four walls<br \/>\nWith open cabinets and an<br \/>\nAlphabetized spice rack\u2014<br \/>\nHold us\u2014all.<\/p>\n<p>As we come<br \/>\nTo the kitchen table\u2014<br \/>\nAngry with housemates.<br \/>\nDisappointed with work.<br \/>\nFists clenched.<br \/>\nJaw tightened.<br \/>\nSomething\u2014happens.<br \/>\nOur hands open,<br \/>\nReaching across the table<br \/>\nTo hold another.<br \/>\nFingers unfurl\u2014<br \/>\nWhite knuckles regain their color.<br \/>\nJaws relax,<br \/>\nExhaling prayers<br \/>\nAnd<br \/>\nInhaling the love inside<br \/>\nHomecooked food.<br \/>\nEating brown rice or white,<br \/>\nCoconut curries and<br \/>\nOne-pot-wonders<br \/>\nWe slowly find our way<br \/>\nBack<br \/>\nTo each other<br \/>\nTo self.<\/p>\n<p>The kitchen holds us\u2014<br \/>\nMaybe better than we hold<br \/>\nEach other<br \/>\nBecause<br \/>\nThe heartbeat of our home<br \/>\nThe kitchen<br \/>\nIs that place that<br \/>\nGrace lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Katie Cummings In my house When I want to be with Someone I come To the kitchen And I sit At the kitchen table. Organically people may Emerge\u2014 Stretching on the floor after a run, Shuffling pots and pans for dinner, Reading a book in the glorious sun. It is the heartbeat of our<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,167,257,258,372,665],"class_list":["post-3123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bvs","tag-another-way-of-living","tag-bvs-2","tag-community","tag-community-living","tag-elgin","tag-kitchen-table"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}