It seems without much trouble the year could get by us pretty quickly, without much planning or reflection, maybe without much direction as well.  I have been thinking how I want our times to be slower, to be more special, especially our family times.

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I think particularly about dinner time.  Often we watch TV during dinner.  And often the kids get into a silly mood and the time is separated between the moods of the children and the moods of the parents.  We don’t take advantage of all of us being home, being together, and of sharing the trials and joys of growing up.  As each dinner flies by, so does each week, month and then year.  Each dinner should be special, and it should be a time of celebrating together, while discussing the days passed and the ones coming.

Life can be losing its pomp and circumstance, given that going out to dinner is commonplace, that email texting, the web, and the media make the world a much smaller place, that individuals are taken out of their physical space and are included in the place as facilitated by their electronics.  I want to bring back the history, the mystery, the realization that interpersonal communication can be complex, nuanced, and so interesting.  Thank God for Downton Abby because we are loving being included in a world that seems so foreign to us, yet is so attractive in its form.

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With that in mind, I want to slow us down as I can.  I will put my foot down that this type of behavior at the dinner table is not acceptable.  We have such little time together, I will not have it wasted or disrupted at the dinner table.  The dinner table may be the only time during the day where connection can occur.  I will no longer stand for it to be hijacked by hooligans or television.

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