Whose house do you feel most welcomed in?
What exactly makes you feel at home away from home?
I remember a time when Romanians were described as very hospitable, putting forth and sharing whatever they had in the house. Conrad jokes about trying old cookies at my great-great aunts home. But she was so so delighted to have visitors un in the village house.
Last Sunday I saw a beautiful painting with the title “a cup of friendship and kindness” and it was very dream like painted. Two cups of tea, a tea pot and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, with a hand inviting you in. And it occurred to me. TEA! It’s warm, it can be sweet and while you drink it you can enjoy the fellowship.
Not the abundance makes one welcomed. But the heart with which one is received.
This generation feels more and more rushed. Our addiction to social media pulls us away from the messy real live interactions.
I asked Conrad whose house he feels most welcomed in. Then we both sat in silence for a long time.
On one hand hospitality can be taken into the extreme and be overwhelming, intense too much food and speed talking or, on the other hand, it can be dry and awkwardly silent, and one or both parties try to figure out an escape route.
I heard a story on this same Sunday, about a group of thugs destroying apartment-homes and people fleeing for their lives. But this one couple decided to stay in their home. So he heated the water for coffee and put cookies on the plates, and as they heard them walk towards their door, the man open wide his door, and with a bright smile on he said: “come in, the coffee is hot and we have fresh cookies for you”. In disbelief, the thugs entered, sat down and ate the cookies, and drank the coffee, and left their host unharmed and did not destroy the rest of the building. They left in peace altogether.
Being different. Responding in love and kindness when it is the least expected.
