Departures: Radical Hospitality

When guests come to stay in our home, it is common for us to make a concerted effort to prepare our home for their visit.  After all, they are going to be living among us for that brief period of time, and it is important to most of us that any guests we have feel welcomed.

Hospitality is about generosity of spirit.  When we take the time to create a hospitable environment, it is a way of honoring of our guests. Practicing hospitality is a non-verbal Namaste, of sorts.  It conveys the message, “the divinity in me honors the divinity in you”.  But it affects more than just our guests, and it extends beyond welcoming people into our homes.  We put forth a  great deal of effort toward making our congregation a welcoming place for visitors and for each other.  We spend a lot of time making our places of business welcoming.  That same attitude can be taken out into the world at large to make anyone we come in contact with feel welcomed, feel better off for having encountered us on their journey.

How can we expand from creating hospitality in our homes to creating it in our lives?  All that is necessary to adopt this attitude of universal hospitality is an awareness of the connection between us, and a desire to honor that connection at all times.  Understanding the impact that our attitude, actions and behavior have on those around us, inspires in us a desire to behave in a way which respects it.  When it becomes important to us that those with whom we come in contact are enriched by the experience of our encounter, we are already on the way to embracing the concept.  In creating a hospitable atmosphere, our own experience of each connection is made sweeter as well.  When we put our efforts toward creating the world as a hospitable place for each other, everyone benefits.

What can you do today to make someone feel the warmth of welcome in your presence?  How will that color your own experience of the connection?

~Christiana

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