A Seat for All

(An Invitation)

Dear Friends,

There comes a moment — quiet and certain — when we realize the shape of our life is shifting.

Sometimes it begins with a restlessness we can’t name.

Sometimes with grief.

Sometimes, with the ache of no longer fitting somewhere we once called home.

This new chapter in Forage & Gather begins with such a moment.

It’s a story I’ve held close for a long time — about walking away from a group I had once poured so much of myself into. A group I’d loved. A place I’d given my time, my presence, my purpose. But over time, I began to feel the edges. I began to feel the weight of fitting in where I no longer belonged.

At first, I thought it was burnout. But the truth was deeper than that. It was a turning. A quiet call toward something softer, rounder, more alive.

And so I stepped away.

Not in anger. In grief.

But also with deep trust.

Because there was something else — some deeper knowing — tugging at my sleeve.

And it whispered: Come back to the table.

Not the one set with fine china and polished silver, though I still adore those. I spent nearly forty years creating beauty in that world — running one of the most beloved tableware businesses in the country, working with icons like Julia Child and Jacques Pépin, serving on boards and behind-the-scenes teams in some of the most respected institutions in my community.

But the table I’m talking about now is older than all of that.

It’s the table beneath the oak tree.

The table in the stillroom.

The one we carry in our hearts when we ask, Where do I belong now?

It’s a table where you don’t earn your seat by status, but by showing up. With your questions. With your stories. With your hands and your hunger and your holy mess of a life.

That’s the table I write from. And that’s the table I’m setting in Forage & Gather.

In Chapter One: A Seat for All, I share this turning. I offer a simple ritual for claiming your own seat, and a blessing for the brave ones who walk away to walk home to themselves.

If this sounds like a path you want to walk — gentle, real, nourishing — I’d love to share it with you.

Paid subscribers receive each chapter of Forage & Gather as it’s written, along with recipes, practices, stories, and the deeper roots of this work. You can even begin with a 7-day free trial, just to see how it feels.

There’s no pressure. Just an open seat. A glass of dandelion mead. And a candle lit.

Because the table is set.

And there is always room for you.

With love,

Beth

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