Enjoying dinner on a summer night in Lake Oswego.

It’s 7 p.m. and you stare at her as she walks in the front door, back from another day of work. All day you’ve been waiting for this moment and now you’re craving it, like you do every day around this time. It’s your daily devotion together and you two do it right.

This is the magic that happens when you sit down around the family table and eat dinner together.

While this may seem like just an ordinary part of the day, I’ve realized that the supper ritual is rather special and unique. Looking back on my past four years at college, I learned that most college students could care less about taking an hour out of their busy schedule to eat a meal together. I’m not even talking about cooking – just the conscious choice to share dinner with a friend, to talk about how their day has been and what is on their mind.

It makes a huge difference when you live with someone who values coming to the table each night to eat, laugh and discuss, just as much as you do. It’s a blessing. You don’t feel out of place when a huge smile spreads across your face as you’re simultaneously chopping vegetables, squeezing slices of lemon into tumblers filled with seltzer water and clinking glasses of wine, saluting your health and whatever reminds you of the joy in your lives.

Even though it’s just an hour or so out of the day, it’s an hour that you know you can count on – an hour where you can relax, where you can share new things you’ve learned and ask for help on the things that present challenges.

If this doesn’t sound important to you now, maybe you should take the time to figure out what you do where you engage with others and reflect on how to deal with the world that rushes by. Maybe coming around the table each night with your friends and family is just the thing you’ve been looking for.