At the Table with Ronisha
Thanksgiving used to be my loophole holiday.
It was the one day I could eat every sweet in the house without a single side-eye or, “Now you know you’ve had enough.” Sweet potato pie, pound cake, peach cobbler, banana pudding — I treated the dessert table like a spiritual assignment. I tasted everything, twice. And somehow, the sweetness always hit deeper because the house was full of people.
Looking back, I’ve realized something:
The desserts were good, but the fellowship was sweeter.
Thanksgiving, in its purest form, is a celebration of togetherness — not perfection, not performance, but presence. It’s the sound of people talking over each other. The laughter you can feel. The last minute “Where’s the foil?” The kids running through the house. The aunties whispering in the kitchen. The cousins plotting the leftovers. It’s noisy, warm, overcrowded, and divine.
But somewhere along the way, fellowship started to fade.
Not disappear — just soften, almost without us noticing.
Families moved. Life sped up. And technology stepped in like, Don’t worry, I got it. Now a day once full of voices and hugs can be summed up in a quick:
“Happy Thanksgiving!”
sent to twenty people at once.
Convenient? Yes.
Intimate? Not even close.
A text message can deliver the words, but it can’t deliver the warmth. It can’t hold a moment. It can’t replace hearing someone’s voice — that familiar tone that makes your shoulders drop and your spirit sigh in relief because it knows it’s being held.
There’s a kind of love that only shows up when we show up.
So this Thanksgiving, I want to extend an invitation — not to your table, but to your heart:
Restore the fellowship.
Not the picture-perfect version social media sells us.
Not the curated table or the coordinated outfits.
But the real, sometimes messy, deeply human fellowship we grew up with.
The kind where you call instead of text.
The kind where you pause instead of scroll.
The kind where you check in for real.
The kind where presence means more than posts.
Because fellowship isn’t just being together.
Fellowship is choosing each other.
And on a holiday built on gratitude, choosing each other might just be the most sacred tradition we have left.
Before the pies come out the oven, before someone asks who made the macaroni, before you slip into your softest clothes and your food-ready posture — take a moment.
Call someone you love. Hear their voice. Let yours be heard.
And as you eat to your heart’s content (because some traditions should never be broken), may you also fill up on the sweetness of connection — the kind that lingers long after the plates are cleared.
From my heart and my table to yours,
Happy Thanksgiving.
And may fellowship find its way back home to you.
