Hospitality Lesson # 4 - BEAUTY

 

One of the joys of hospitality is surprise. Think of a time when you have been invited to someone's home, not knowing what to expect, and as you walk in you are blown away by Christmas decorations, the way the table is set, or the transformation of a home into a particular themed event. 

Beauty is the icing on the cake, the glitter on the table, or the flowers in the vase. It is those small touches that the one extending hospitality invests in to make a point. 

And that point is that, "my guests are worth this extra effort." Its not unlike a bouquet of flowers on a date that make an extra statement about how the suitor feels.

Along the Geneva Lake Shore Path, the owners of the homes have laid out a banquet of beauty in the flowers they have planted. All summer I have been amazed at the rows of red, orange, yellow, purple and white. 

Sometimes the flowers are in perfect rows . . . almost like a choreographed firework display. Other times they are fields of flowers that seem to spread and sway like a herd of animals grazing in a prairie. 

No matter their form, they present a unique aspect of hospitality. They are that exclamation point that says, "You are worth it." It invites you to imagine things in new ways and experience someone else's vision of beauty. It brings new perspective; which in the end, is one of the greatest gifts of all. 

"True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each and every person." Kathleen Norris