At Home In the World

Transcript

Welcome to your head, welcome to your brain.

Welcome to those parts of you which you had left behind, thought you could run away from but come back so you can face them again to present the lessons.

To integrate those parts, to bring them to life again and become a greater part of you. Welcome.

Welcome, actually welcome to this world.

You know what it’s like to not feel at home in the world. I think a lot of people have been bullied. People deliberately try to make you feel like you aren’t welcome where you are?

But what is it like to feel at home?

I have a wonderful experience when I went to England and went to Lincoln and met one of my old students Inna and her husband Lyubo. I went to stay at their house.

Inna is quite a character. She actually would always tease me. They’re off in their bedroom and I said “That’s fine, I can sleep on the couch.”

And they said “No, you are our guest and you will take our bedroom.”

And I was like “Really? I would never do this for a guest”

And Inna was like “Really, what kind of host are you?”

Anyway they gave me the bedroom and they let me stay there. I was very grateful and had a wonderful experience there. I saw the castle and the cathedral.

Also I was in the Basque country and I went to see my friend Maitane. I was in Portugal and she said you must come to the Basque country. Come to Vitoria-Gasteíz and see what it’s like here.

And staying there in an apartment with Maitane and her Mother, her Mom said “Oh that’s fine, I will sleep on the couch. I prefer to sleep in the lounge room, anyway.”

I know she was just saying that to be nice but again they offered a bedroom for me. It was so nice for someone to do something like that.

It’s not just nice, its amazing. Its really nice, it’s extra nice with sprinkles on top.

It’s wonderful when someone makes you feel like that, that you’re not an inconvenience. That you are free to be yourself.

After a long time of being away from Australia I went back and my brother welcomed me into his home. My parents welcomed me into their home.

When I was leaving…. I don’t know if I got all the words out but I tried to say to my Dad “It’s so great to have a home to come home to. Not everyone in the world has that. Not everyone has someone who will just welcome them in and not ask any questions and won’t judge them.”

And will show them hospitality and give them a place to sleep. Lyubo said to me when I was staying with him in England in Bulgaria is that you can stay at someone’s home for 3 days. The host will not ask you any questions for 3 days.

They won’t ask what are your plans or why you need a place to stay. They will just welcome you.

And that’s a really sweet tradition of hospitality. And I remember I was visiting my friend Sebastian in London and he was staying in this big share house. I don’t know how many rooms it had maybe 10, it was a 3 story home.

He was staying up at the top and there were people in the house who did not make me feel welcome. I was thinking of staying there a day, but ended up staying elsewhere with my friend Youcef and his girlfriend Lisa.

And when I was talking to Sebastian and Adi his girlfriend in the kitchen, one of their housemates came in and said “How long is he staying?”

And we were like “That’s kind of intense, an intense line of questioning. How about a how are you first?”

Later Sebastian told me there was another fellow staying there, I forget where he was from, maybe from Armenia. I didn’t meet the gentleman.

But Sebastian said to me “This dude on the surface seems a little rough but is actually super sweet. He had been through wars and seen somethings. He found it appalling his housemates behavior when they did stuff like this.

He said “people all over the world know when a home is special, that when a guest comes into your home you show them something lovely. You show them what a home can be.”

There’s this gentle giant, humble warrior. Almost like an archetype.

When someone has seen how harsh life can be they learn what matters and they let go of some trivialities.

Likewise I met Mr. Battles Uncle who’s a police chief in Nezahualcoyotl… Neza out of Mexico City. I met him 5 minutes ago and he said to me “Listen, if you ever need a place to stay in Mexico City, look me up, that’s your house.”

He said that the only reason he’s the police chief is because he’s the only one who survived.

So they would get sent in to do battle with the cartels.

Sometimes it’s like kick in the door, bullets whizzing past to the left and the right. Its a miracle he even survived.

Now we know that Elias values life, of course he does. That’s why he values the home, hospitality. He didn’t even think. He just met me. What if I wasn’t trustworthy? What if I were to steal from him or something?

He knew that I was a friend of his nephew’s but having seen the type of person I was just for 5 minutes, that was enough. That was enough to let go of preoccupations and doubts about people because there are more important things.

Opening your home, opening your heart because life is short and if we can take that opportunity to make life easier or more pleasant for others. To have that opportunity to show kindness to somebody in need. That’s a wonderful thing.

When you let someone feel at home in the world? Can you offer that feeling to yourself?

Thank you so much for listening, thank you for doing what you can to extend kindness according to your own limits and comfort zone to do something a little special and help someone feel at home in the world and help yourself feel at home in the world.

Thank you so much for listening, have a great day.