Heart of the space

I grew up in the Midwest. There’s a saying there: the kitchen is the heart of the house. 

I’m sure they say that in other parts of the world, but when I hear it I always think of back home when I was growing up. I always had the idea that a kitchen seemed to perfectly capture the essence of the people who lived in that house; for better or worse it was an expression of part of who they were. For me growing up, there was a lot of love and goodness tied to the kitchen. Besides making food and sharing it, you gathered there. Maybe it was just houses I grew up in, but we never seemed to fight in the kitchen. 

There was plenty of arguing, mind you. Swearing and yelling. Tempers and feelings. But not much of that at all in the kitchen. That was the place you went to eat, to be social, to catch up, maybe to share some serious talk - my theory was doing that in the kitchen took the edge off, a little. 

At our coworking space, this third location of ours in eight years, we have a kitchen. It actually has a stove (which I disconnected, because yikes) and everything else, and when we moved into this new space and opened up… I’d forgotten how much I missed it. Having one, gathering there, sharing food and talking story. 

I’m not sure if our kitchen is the heart of our coworking space. But it really doesn’t hurt 😊

We had a kitchen in our first space, and it was all those things: we’d spontaneously meet and scheme in there. When we decided to enjoy a beverage, it was almost always there in the kitchen, not out in the main space. 

The kitchen there was the place we first started seeing the most amazing thing, the thing that warmed our hearts, that let us know we’d really created something special. People would bring treats and leave them for others. The kitchen would be the place to pay it forward in a little way, to show a little community love.

Our second space -where we moved right after lockdown started -  didn’t really have a kitchen. It was a little kitchenette, and we were happy for it. We couldn’t really gather in that space, and it didn’t have the same kinda charm, but we made due. Nice to have a place to keep food, get water, heat something up. But… not really a heart. 

When we moved into our third space last October, there was definitely work to be done. Lots of repair in the kitchen. To me I’d been too far out of that kitchen in the first space; I didn’t remember all the times and feelings, and it was really just another part of the space on a (long, long) list of things to square away. I didn’t pay it much attention. But it got seen to, and over time the kitchen came together. We knew it was a priority… but for me it felt like an obligation. 

But it came along nicely. 

And once it was done, and we were fully moved into the new space, something really nice started to happen. 

People started bringing treats. Hanging out in the kitchen. Grabbing an occasional beverage, or snack. A social space, for impromptu convos with coworking friends, catching up on family or project stuff, learning about some part of someone’s job or life. 

There’s a lot I love about our new space, and a lot of people put a lot of effort and sweat and maybe some tears and a little blood.. andmore than a little heart into making it special.