My friend Sue shared a story of meeting European guests who were staying at a friends’ house. Their joy, laughter and service filled her with inspiration. Three women, traveling together, raised the bar on the gift a guest can bring forth when staying in someone else’s home.
Sue explained: When I stayed overnight at my friends’ house, I came after the ladies from Europe were already asleep. By morning when I awoke, I heard laughter in the kitchen. I went downstairs, and they each introduced themselves along with which country they came from—Germany, Italy, Greece—though they knew one another from owning homes in Greece. The three worked as a team, looking at recipes on the kitchen table, deciding what to make for breakfast. When they chose “pancakes,” or what we would call crepes, one tended the skillet, another the ingredients, while the third read the recipe. And as we all gathered at the table, they handed around tea or coffee, making sure everyone had everything they needed. I couldn’t’ get over the fact that they were the guests!
After breakfast, I went downstairs to have a bodywork session with the wife of the couple who owns the house. Upon our return, the kitchen looked pristine and the house was quiet. A note written in German sat on the kitchen table, asking us to call when we were through. We assumed they’d taken a walk. Not at all. Out the window, we spotted one of them in front yard, then one in the side yard, and one in back—all raking leaves! Not only this, but they were using a special broad, triangular oil cloth brought from Germany as a gift to their hosts—a sack with handles that allows you to rake the leaves into the bag and carry them away.
Later that week, I had also been invited to this same friends’ house to meet the European guests. They’d baked both a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest cake, gluten free) and a Galaktoboureko (Greek custard pie). I may never have tasted finer desserts. Yet it was the musical laughter and joy that struck me as unusual in my world. While we sat at the table, they passed around a video of their arrival night. The husband of the couple, a guitar player, sat in his PJs on the piano bench, playing lively music on guitar. The three European women entered the house, dropped their bags and, without even removing their coats, began dancing.
Sometimes a gift moment continues for a duration of time as an open invitation to a new landscape. How wonderful to accept that invitation and enter an uplifted world filled with joy, light and laughter. Sue and I noticed how these European travelers fed all those around them in every way. By being themselves and being together, the gift poured through. Opa!