The word welcome comes from the Old English wilcuma — ‘a person whose coming is pleasing’. The first element was later changed to wel- ‘well’, influenced by Old French bien venu or Old Norse velkominn .
The word welcome connotes an invitation, joy in being in the company of another, a desired connection.
The word welcome begins with the word we.
We cannot truly feel welcome unless we feel that our coming, our presence, is pleasing to another.
We cannot truly welcome another unless their coming, their presence, is pleasing to us.
We cannot truly be “we” unless we can welcome the coming and presence of another into our hearts, our homes, our lives.
We will never really be a whole world until we welcome the presence and coming of others into our hearts, our homes, our lives.
Sounds great in principle, right? But how do we actually do this?
There’s a house around the corner from me with has some very hateful signs in its yard.
There are other houses near me with signs that say Hate Has No Home Here.
How would the inhabitants of those two homes find it in their hearts to welcome one another?
Did you ever watch the show The Twilight Zone? Imagine if everyone woke up one morning and they could find no reason to hate one another because they had all woken up with the realization that the only Power that really exists is Love?
Wouldn’t everyone suddenly go fro protecting their little kingdom of me to welcoming the world as we?
Yes.
There are stories like this in fairy tales that children love — the same children who grow up to hate or to judge (aka mildly hate) those who hate. There are stories like this in the Bible — the same Bible that many people have used over the millennia as an excuse to hate and kill. There are stories like this every day in the world — of people who realize that Love is the only Reality.
I think about this every day as I walk through the town where I find myself. A town where not only can I see the differences in politics and religion and belief systems and attitudes from house to house, from car to car, from person to person. I can also viscerally feel it. Its presence is palpable.
So every day on my walks what do I do? I welcome those feelings. I invited them in with Love. And then I invite Love to transform whatever doubt or fear or judgment that my arise back into its native nothingness so that I can meet everyone in Love.
Is this easy? Nope. But it’s become my heart-centered practice of living we.
And I have come to welcome this practice.
Because welcome begins with we.
And until we move through the world as we instead of me, until everyone feels welcome in this world, we still have work to do in living Love.
This is how we #LoveViral. And this is how our world heals.
Live Love. Live We.