Making Room for Something New
Table Talk
Setting the Table
Welcome. There is room for you here.
Come carrying whatever this day has placed in your hands—joy or weariness, hope or heaviness, clarity or uncertainty. Take a few slow breaths. Set aside what can wait. Allow this moment to hold you as you are, without expectation or hurry.
As a new year opens, notice what new possibilities may be stirring within your own life.
If you could see
the journey whole,
you might never
undertake it,
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.
— Jan Richardson
Isaiah 43.18-20
Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Food for Thought
Like many of you, we welcomed the new year gathered with family around the table, sharing our traditional New Year’s meal—black-eyed peas, collard greens, pork tenderloin, and cornbread. As we sat together, we reminisced over the events of the past year: the highlights—weddings, babies, new jobs, family vacations—and the more difficult moments—health scares, caring for aging parents, adjusting to life after the death of our dear granddaddy.
And yet, the meal itself is also an invitation to look ahead at the year about to unfold with expectation, with playful hopefulness, and a little sacred superstition.
The turn of a new year invites us to pause at the threshold.
Behind us are stories we have lived—some still unfolding, some we are still carrying in our bodies, some we are ready (or almost ready) to lay down. Ahead of us stretches a wide, unwritten space. New beginnings. New opportunities. New questions. New hope, held tenderly alongside what we do not yet know.
The start of a year is not a demand to reinvent ourselves, but an invitation to notice what is emerging. To ask what wants to be born. To listen for the quiet stirring of possibility beneath the noise of the world.
At tables—kitchen tables, church tables, folding tables set up in borrowed spaces—this is where such listening often happens. Over shared meals and unhurried conversation. In the telling and retelling of our stories. In the simple, sacred act of making room for one another.
Stories have always changed lives. They shape how we see ourselves, how we understand one another, how we imagine the future. When stories are honored and shared—especially stories that have too often been silenced or overlooked—they have the power to open us. To soften us. To move us toward justice, compassion, and belonging.
As we step into this new year, our team is excited to share the launch of a newly formed 501(c)(3) non-profit, The Welcome Table Project. While The Welcome Table will continue to focus on new tangible resources, such as books and our weekly Table Talk, The Welcome Table Project will place a deeper focus on being a resource through collaborative efforts to facilitate retreats, workshops, conferences, and podcasts.
This next chapter reflects something that has been growing within our hearts for some time, and is an opportunity for others to be a part of that with us—to gather people together for meaningful group conversation—around tables both literal and figurative—to create spaces for shared learning, listening, and further exploring how stories have the power to shape lives and communities.
This work is rooted in a simple belief: when we sit together with curiosity and care, when we listen across differences, when stories are met with reverence rather than resistance, something holy happens. Walls shift. Assumptions loosen. New possibilities take root.
At the beginning of this year, we are not rushing toward answers. We are practicing attention. We are making room. We are trusting that what we build together—slowly, intentionally, in community—will be shaped by the wisdom at the table.
Wherever this new year has found you—steady or uncertain, hopeful or weary—you are welcome here. There is space at the table for your story, your questions, your longing, and your gifts.
May this season invite us all to notice what is beginning.
May we have the courage to listen.
And may the stories we share together continue to change us, and the world, for the better.
Take some time to reflect on your stories from this past year. How can you make room for new stories in the year ahead? Is there something you’ve felt you need to make room for in the new year – a new job, a new self-care routine, a new creative project? What is something small you can do today to move toward that goal?
For those who wish to support this work, we invite you to consider making a contribution to help sustain and grow The Welcome Table Project. Your gift—whether large or small—helps create spaces for listening, learning, and shared stories that foster connection and understanding. We are deeply grateful for your presence in this community and for every way you choose to participate.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
God of Making Room,
As we stand at the threshold of a new year, help us to release what we have been carrying and to notice with gentle attention what is beginning to stir within us. Teach us to listen deeply—to you and to one another—so that every story shared is met with curiosity, compassion, and care. Bless the spaces we create together, that through shared stories and open hearts, new life, healing, and hope may take root.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
As you look back on the past year, talk together about stories or experiences that are the most meaningful to you, and how might they be shaping what you hope for—or fear—in the year ahead.
What does “making room” look like in your own life right now, and who or what might you be invited to welcome with greater intention?
Discuss where you sense something new beginning—within yourself, your community, or the world.
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Invite the kiddos to share one memory or story from the past year that stands out to them, and help them reflect on how it connects to their hopes for the new year.
Guide a conversation about what “making room at the table” means, encouraging children to think about kindness, inclusion, and ways to help everyone feel welcome.
Encourage the children to name something new they would like to learn, try, or grow this year, and support them in identifying one small step they can take to begin.
Meet This WEek’s Writer...
The Welcome Table Team - We are “The Bunce Girls!” Originally from Lexington, North Carolina, we were raised surrounded by music, justice, and faith. We spent most of our Sunday afternoons gathered around an open table with family and friends where the food was plentiful, stories and laughter connected our hearts, and where the presence of each individual was held sacred. It’s those moments that have inspired The Welcome Table.
To hear more from TWT Team throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!