Yesterday, March 28th I was a guest speaker at the Founder’s District Division C council meeting at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Groove, CA. Great time! At the event, I met (among other beautiful people) Frannie and Norm Stein whom I learned immensely from. It is amazing how much one can learn when he (or she) keeps quiet and listens.
During my interaction with Frannie, she shared with me her thoughts about what we can do to improve the quality of human interactions and by consequence, the quality of our lives. She introduced me with me the concept of “Spiritual Hospitality” which is basically about us surrendering ourselves (as a whole) to the people we interact with.
Her thoughts were well outlined in the following words:
- Space. Both physical and non-physical space. Give people space to work with, wide margin for acceptable error. Define your expectations from the people you interact with, and be patient and forgiving.
- Pace. The person you interact with might be slower than you expect, or faster. When that is the case, recognized that and try to adapt to the pace of the person you are dealing with. Easier said than done, but it is possible if you understand the concept and want to apply it.
- Taste. More often than not, you will have different taste and preferences than those you speak to. Learning how to accept other people’s preferences and tastes is an essential aspect of spiritual hospitality.
As you might have noticed reading the above, “spiritual” hospitality has more to do with surrendering yourself than spirituality. When you learn how to tune yourself out and accept to completely give way (surrender yourself) to those you interact with, you would have become a good practitioner of spiritual hospitality. Peace begins when learn how to you get out of your own way and become a good host to those around you. Give them space, move at their pace, and accept their taste.
Thank you Frannie and Norm. You two are a great inspiration to me and a great visual of what my later days with a life partner will be like. I love you both!