One of the things I so appreciate about our love and inspiration group is that I always leave with some sort of inspiration. This weekend we spoke about being mindful about what makes us feel welcomed. What is it that hosts do that makes us feel welcomed? What do we do to make our guests feel welcomed?
A while back I heard a story about a pastor who would stand outside her church and greet the migrant workers as they came in from the fields. She spoke to them in Spanish and they responded. And soon a bridge was forged. This rural community embraced the migrant farm workers and welcomed them. They offered them radical hospitality and in doing so they discovered it is the recognition of our common humanity which binds us together
As some of you know I became a Pampered Chef consultant about nine months ago and over time managed to accumulate seven very special people on my team, three of whom are blind. We each in our own way have our own disabilities and challenges. I have been very mindful of how unique we each are and have tried to be intentional about connecting with each of them one on one. The month after I was promoted to Director, we did not make the minimum sales we need to as a team to prevent us from going into rebuild. A few of them when they saw we were not going to be “green” in December, said to me. This is not going to happen to us again. As they saw it, it was not me that was responsible for maintaining my title, it was our responsibility as a team. One of my team members put it this way. We are not consultants on a team, we are a team. You extended an open heart to each of us and showed us what we can accomplish when we work together as a whole. We are a Director team. Somehow, like the pastor who greeted people in Spanish, my taking the time to form human bonds with my team members helped to form a similar bond. Our team is tied together by the commonness of our humanity.
This is the tie that binds. When we can recognize the thing we have all in common with each other is our humanity, we broaden our understanding of the Divine. We focus on building bridges that traverse the abyss of differences which appear to separate us one from the other. When the Divine in me recognizes the Divine in you, then we open ourselves up to the opportunity to find out we have just spent time with an Angel.