My garden table sits 6 people. It’s always been a lovely table, big, wooden and heavy.  I painted it a few years ago and it took on a whole new life.  The chairs are heavy too, comfortable, and I have thick seat cushions I keep for when we’re using the table more formally. I brought the table here from our old house and it fitted an area perfectly, just outside the living room doors. It’s a great spot for it.  The space is rectangular and so is the table.  My brain fitted them together and we were all happy. Twelve years of happy.

That was until this summer. This summer, as I do every couple of years, I sanded and painted the table and chairs.  I swept and cleaned the area around them and hung some lights.  When it came time to put everything back, my son helped me. For some reason the table ended up, just for a moment, sitting across the rectangle.  And my son and I looked at each other. The table felt so much better this way!  Why had none of us ever noticed this before?

We’ve enjoyed a whole summer out there, having breakfasts, coffees, dinners, working, pausing.  And we’ve enjoyed so much sitting in the new position - it feels like two jigsaw pieces had been switched and are now where they belong.

I’m looking at it now. It’s brilliant. It still makes me smile each time I pass.

So today I have this - just because it’s always been, doesn’t mean it’s right. It doesn’t mean it should stay unchallenged.  It doesn’t mean a change isn’t required. And it means that a change is sometimes an enormous gift.  

Love from

The room above the garage 

A Moodscope member.