When It’s The Simple Things That Matter

My husband and I had friends over for dinner Saturday evening.  We call it, “dinner and game night.”  This time, we split the division of food preparation.  Our friends brought the wine, a necessary addition to the evening.

But on this particular occasion, we took the evening in a bit of a different direction than we had in the past. Instead of choosing a game, we decided to engage in Table Topics, an activity my husband and I discovered at an Air BnB where we stayed over Memorial Day.  It’s a plastic case of square cards, each with a question.  Some of the questions are just simple and fun, like, “If you needed to change your name what would you choose,” or “What’s your favorite dessert?”

Other questions create deeper, more meaningful, below the surface conversation.  Questions such as, “What are your simple pleasures,” “If you only had five more years to live would you change anything about your life,” and “If you could give all human beings one virtue which would you choose?”

Each round, everyone pulled a card from the box.  After one of us read the question we pulled, we all took a turn giving our own answer. Deep thoughts were shared, much laughter ensued, and even a tear or two was shed.

As the topics progressed, there was one thing that became glaringly apparent.  We all agreed that it’s the people we’re with and the meaningful times spent with good friends and loved ones that matter the most to us. It’s the memories we create from quiet times on back decks and front porches, to hiking beautiful mountains, to having coffee with your best friend.  It’s all of these things that create the deepest meaning in our lives.

This all reminded me of something my husband has long said and that is, “At the end of our lives, all we’ll have is our memories.  Let’s be sure we’re creating them.”

We created one together with friends this past Saturday evening.

And we’re looking forward to the next.