An outsider's perspective

I sit at the countertop, watching the humans move around the kitchen floors yet never stopping for more than five minutes. Awakening earliest is a teenage girl half-awake, always filling up my companion with water who boils. The girl drops a frozen waffle into me or microwaves a piece of bread from the bag. A new one appears almost every week—wow, this family eats fast. As I pop the waffle out of my electric confines, the girl retrieves the waffle and her water bottle, scurrying up the stairs. If it's a weekday morning, she's always in a rush, constantly glancing at the oven clock (I need an upgrade!).

I wait around an hour to see two older adults appear; the mother cooks eggs daily but changing the vegetables within. It's a surprise to see what's set on the table each day, but I know this mother is caring and loving, waking up every day to cook under an empty stomach. Mothers truly deserve more respect. It's 9am soon; I'm not used much except for the teen girl, who loves to place frozen waffles. But now an older adult comes down; she's only come since March—some special circumstance? I've noticed these families have eaten at home for every meal, never leaving the house. By 9:30, everyone has left, but the teen girl comes down to savor what her mother has cooked. Actions of love are spread all over, as by the next hour, the father will have washed the dishes his daughters accumulated. 

I am a provider of warmth—I don't appreciate the way this family seems so disconnected, until the evening in which they gather together to enjoy a warm, fresh meal filled with Chinese steamed vegetables and a plate of protein the mother prepares every single day. She warns, "your meal must be filled with nutrition—protein, vegetables, and grains!" 

Perhaps from this outsider view, this daily routine looks like disorder and chaos. But yes, that is just an assumption; for the family, this routine is orderly. To rid the chaos happening outside of the home, they fit their daily routine to the new normal, meeting sounds resonating multiple rooms. This is when they feel most productive—a purpose in each hasty step, careful action, and familial gathering.