A Space Full Of Love

Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.

—Proverbs 15:17

One year when Aaron and I were first married, we had a big Christmas party in our tiny one-bedroom town house. We set up small food and drink stations in every room—ice buckets of champagne and tiny turkey sandwiches and little pots of sweet and spicy mustard on the coffee table and the kitchen counter, with another platter down in the basement studio, next to the drums, and another in the loft.

Even those stations weren’t enough, so just before guests started arriving, I took a deep breath, shoved all of our clothes and shoes in the closet, and put a platter of sandwiches and an ice bucket with champagne on the piano in our bedroom. At one point, I found a whole group of our friends lounging on our bed with sandwiches and champagne flutes. Later in the evening I found them trying on all of my shoes.

People aren’t craving perfection or longing to be impressed; they’re longing to feel like they’re home. If you create a space full of love and character and creativity and soul, no matter how small or undone or odd, they’ll take off their shoes and curl up with gratitude and rest.