Welcome

It seems like it is common for one to begin a blog with a “Hello World!” posting. Instead, as I begin this new venture, I say “Welcome World!”

Welcome, of course, is directly linked to the concept of hospitality, which seems to me is so intrinsic to developing and maintaining right relationships. I have been blessed to experience and share times of hospitality, both in my travels worldwide and in parties and other celebrations I have hosted over the years. My mother taught me the importance of being a good and attentive hostess and for including everyone – I just thought that was normal. There was hardly a Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter dinner that did not include friends and friends of friends, who really became extended family actually. There was always a listening ear and an open invitation.

So when I was system manager for my engineering discipline for the International Space Station, I considered that giving and receiving hospitality on an international level was an important part of my job. I traveled to Japan for a week-long meeting with my counterparts at JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) and sang karaoke with them. And I visited my Russian counterparts in Moscow, who welcomed me to the team, and at the end of the week shared a meal with us, complete with toasts of vodka all around. So on two different occasions, when my Russian colleagues were in Houston for meetings, I thought nothing of throwing a party and inviting them over to my house. Hosting a dinner at a restaurant was not even a question for me. As a direct result, the next trip I took to Russia that June included a garden party at a dacha just outside Moscow city limits. It was one of the most beautiful afternoons of my life and the gorgeous peonies my hostess cut out of her garden to give to me as I left almost made me cry.

Hospitality from a Christian perspective is explicitly described in Chapter 53 of the Rule of Saint Benedict. This rule is attributed to Saint Benedict (circa 480-587 ce) who founded the Benedictine religious order in Umbria, Italy, in conjunction with his sister Saint Scholastica (circa 480-543 ce.) The wisdom of the rule includes both spiritual guidance on how to follow Jesus and rules for the communities that were administered at monasteries. This Rule of Saint Benedict is still one of the most common and influential rules used by monasteries today. Chapter 53 says that religious communities should greet guests with “all the courtesy of love,” since we see, in welcoming the stranger, the reality that we are welcoming Jesus. Special respect is to be paid to the poor and to pilgrims, and all are welcomed with a prayer.

I am writing this blog as a creative outlet that I hope will enable me to discover and begin to voice what I know to be true. And for that purpose, I would like to invite you to share this journey with me. Welcome to my blog where I would like to explore those places where mind meets heart. In my thinking, this intersection is critical for balance on a personal level, but I also think it would be helpful on larger local, national, and international levels. In my view, a meeting of intelligent minds that can both give and receive hospitality in a heartfelt way has the potential for changing everything. So since the Rule of Saint Benedict indicates that guests should be met with prayer, I pray with you now – that we can all be open to sharing hospitality and welcoming others who are different from us. And that this will contribute to an opening in understanding that could lead to lasting peace on so many levels.