Carry On

The British government, upon the outbreak of WWII, commissioned posters to be distributed throughout the country as a means of allaying public fear.  Three different posters were produced and while the first two designs were widely distributed the third poster, simply bearing the words 'Keep Calm and Carry On', was reserved for use only in times of extreme crisis.  Although hundreds of thousands of these posters were produced, only a handful were ever displayed. 

We framed one recently, and hung it in our kitchen this week. 

Since then, Tucker threw a bottle of red nail polish on the earth-toned kitchen floor, and although we acted quickly and although the slate and the grout are sealed, there will forever be a spot (albeit one of the nobody-else-will-notice variety).  I may or may not have kept calm as I tried to clean up the nail polish.
And then yesterday Andy dropped a bowl of Pad Thai chicken.  The bowl didn't break, and the dog took care of most of the mess, but we may or may not have both lost our patience and our appetites.

Now we know, WE KNOW, these things do not qualify as crises.  And far more often than not there's a happy huddle of souls crowded around our counter top.  Like most homes, our kitchen is the hub of the house, the place where Celie learned to make guacamole, where kisses are sent and received through the back door panes.  It's the place with the fewest seats and where, inevitably, the most people congregate.  We make some messes and a lot of great memories in our little kitchen, not to mention some pretty good meals.  Our relationships strengthen in these incidental moments when it seems like not much is going on and yet so much is.
JEB