Meal Time Connection

 

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”
Socrates

In my series about how to Organize YOUR Life I talked about the importance of slowing down.  In that post I shared with you a little bit about how moving to Europe has helped me specifically in this area.  Living in  a new culture has opened my eyes to some important differences.  Differences that have helped me to take my pace of life down a notch.

While in many ways my life looks the same as it did in the States, mainly because I am continuing to wear the hat of “mom.”  For the most part I am spending much of my time doing daily tasks such as grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, taxi driving etc.  Here’s some proof.

I could almost be at a Target in this picture.  A Target with a built-in Starbucks.  (The best combo ever.)  Not quite, no Targets here in Portugal.  But they do have grocery stores in the malls.  Which I think is genius!  And you can get your car washed and detailed in the parking garage while doing all of your shopping at the mall.  Which I also think is fabulous.  Yes, I push a cart through the mall and so do a lot of other people.  Truly my mall time is a one stop shop.  I pay my cable bill, cell phone, shop for gifts, get groceries, pick up a Chai Tea from Starbucks and can even swing by the pet store for a quick peek of the new animals.

In many ways things are very advanced here.

In many ways things are not.

When you get behind a car like this (well can you call this a car?) you HAVE to slow down.

Which is similar to the experience when you go out for a meal.  The dining experience is meant to be an “experience.”

We learned this lesson the hard way.

In Portugal you have to ask for the bill when you are finished.  We didn’t know this at the time so we kept waiting and waiting and waiting.  Finally after seeing other tables request their bills we realized that you have to ask for your bill. This is done as a respect to the customer.  The idea of meal time is that you have your table for as long as you would like.  There is no pressure to turn your table.  Meal time is meant to be relaxing and a time to truly connect with others.  (In many ways it is refreshing and enjoyable but sometimes a bit annoying because our kids can only last so long in a restaurant before their start getting rambunctious.)

I love the beauty of taking more time to connect to others especially over a meal.  I encourage you with your family and friends to make the most of meal time.  Don’t just rush through conversations, instead take time to really connect and go deep.  Meal time is a wonderful way to connect and to slow down.  Put away the technology and turn off the distractions.  Make the most of your time together.  Seek quality over quantity.

Don’t just try to turn the table and get the dishes done.

*KISS – Make meal times meaningful.

Happy Friday & Happy Connecting!!!