As a child growing up, I have very few memories of the times when we gathered as a family to sit down and eat dinner together. I grew up in a home where both of my parents worked. My mother taught school, and my father worked during the night at a local chemical plant. There was not much time available for us to sit down to eat dinner together due to my parents' conflicting work schedules and the extracurricular activities in which my sister and I participated.
It wasn't until I got married and had two children of my own that I began to realize the importance of eating dinner together. In my family there are elements that take us away from each other, day in and day out, but as a mother I feel it is my responsibility to bring us all back together again at the end of the day. In my house, dinner time is a time of thanks. I give thanks for the food we share, but I am more thankful for the family I share it with. Dinner time is a time for us to share our day, and reflect on our thoughts. It is also a time when we learn about honesty, perseverance, courage, sympathy and friendship. Above all it is a time when my family are able to connect with the ones they love.
As I look at the bread basket which sits on my kitchen table, I am reminded of how the basket's tight weave resembles the tightly woven strands (线)of my family. I believe that through our family dinner, we will not only pass around the meat and potatoes, but we will also hand round virtues that will shape and mold (塑造)us so that we can forever embrace one another just as the basket embraces the bread.
