Having company over is the only time my house really gets clean.

Even if it's family (and sometimes especially if it's family, depending on who's coming!) I always go into a frenzy of tidying, getting Sarah to vacuum and dust, clearing off counters, etc.  Why?  We want to put our best foot forward when we're with others.  We want to be liked, admired, thought well of.  So we start with a nice environment, continue with a tasty meal, endeavor to engage our guests in fun activities or stimulating conversation, and when they go home, we collapse, glad we made the effort but ready to return to our normal lives.

But "company" means much more than having people over for dinner or for a weekend.  It's about connecting with other people.

I like people.  I like to hear their stories, figure out what motivates them, how they think, what they value.  Relationships expand us as we consider different points of view, gain new information, and consider experiences outside our own.  That's not to say they can't be tricky (we spent a lot of time last night discussing boys with Sarah -- yeesh!), but they enrich our lives when handled well, and that often takes practice as well as a willingness to put someone before ourselves, to be wrong, to compromise.

I found many engaging quotes about relationships and company at The Quote Garden, but here is my favorite, as it sums up my view of the best company very poetically:

Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.  ~Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, 1859

What are your thoughts on company?


Via weheartit , possibly originally from a Toast catalogue (so spelled because it's a British company selling exquisitely expensive clothes)