Dear God,
So all this month I have been reflecting on hospitality, reading about it, writing, about it, starting conversations about it, and practicing it to the best of my ability. Others have told me I am very hospitable and that they feel the welcome and the love the minute they walk in our door. I am so grateful they feel that way. Zoe and I are so intentional about trying to create that space. We both know what it is like to not feel welcomed, to not be wanted, to be excluded, and to be told there is no room at the inn. As a result, we have been intentional about doing all we can to create an environment of love and welcoming.
Yet for whatever reason when I have sat down to journal about hospitality as it applies to my own life, what I remembered were those moments when people did something to make me feel welcomed and those times when I was not. It just felt like the same old thought pattern. This afternoon, however, I started thinking about hospitality differently. I started thinking about how welcoming I am with myself. Do I just welcome the parts of me that I like and appreciate or do I also welcome the parts of me that I am working to transform. Do I show myself the same level of hospitality that I show others? If I can’t welcome all of me unconditionally, then am I able to welcome and show love to others unconditionally.
I can’t ever tell myself to leave. It’s not as if I can say to myself; well you’ve overstayed your welcome. I can’t say that to myself, but I am not sure that I always as am hospitable to myself as I am to others. When others come and need to talk and process I listen. I share with them that sacred gift that you taught me and blessed me with – listening. However, how deeply do I listen to myself? Am I giving myself that same sacred gift of just sitting and listening? Not always and when I don’t am I telling you that you are not welcome in my mind at the moment. Am I saying I don’t need you to listen to me and help me be the strongest spiritual warrior I can be? If I am, then I apologize because as Smoky Norful sings I need you now. I need your reminders to welcome and embrace all of who I am right now. I need your reminders to take the time to listen to my body, my mind, and my soul because you are speaking to me through all of them. I need to remember you are working as powerfully through the parts of me that I love as the parts that I am working on and that they are all messengers of your love for me
So thank you for never giving up on me and never letting me give up on myself