In a world that feels ever more fragmented and contentious, I keep returning to what I see as one of the most powerful practices of peace that we have: the art of hospitality.
By hospitality I don’t simply mean the various ways we welcome a guest into our home, or offer a guest something to eat and drink.
I also mean, more deeply, the inner stance that being a true host implies: the openness to another who may come from an entirely different world and language and way of life and who we want to help feel at home.
Opening One’s Heart to a Book
Now we may or may not be in a position to embody such hospitality in our homes, but when we think of it as an inner stance, we discover the possibility of practicing it in many other ways.
For instance, to read a book can be a profound way to open one’s heart to another–to an experience that may be very different from our own, or point of view, or our way of seeing the world.
This is something I’ve tried to practice myself, from the time I began to read seriously.
One of the best things we can do in a time of turmoil is read a book from someone who has lived through hard times and learned how to thrive nonetheless.
Opening One’s Heart to One’s Heart
But more recently I’ve realized something can happen when we open our hearts to a good book. We may not only be welcoming a guest from the outside, but also forgotten or neglected aspects of ourselves.
A book, that is, may welcome us into its world and help us see how much of that world is also our own.
Here’s an example from my own life. During the 6th International Thirukkural Conference in Toronto, I had the pleasure of meeting Komathy Caandeepan, a teacher and writer who has published several children’s books about what it’s like to be displaced by war and grow up in another not always hospitable country.
That makes the themes sound heavy, but what makes both Silences and Strings of Love so delightful is that they are filled with the candor, freshness of vision, and resilience of a child who learns to find her own way, with the help of perceptive friends and teachers in her life.
That child, I realized reading, lives in my own self too.
A Heart That Smiles
I am thus honored and delighted to welcome you to join me and Komathy Caandeepan for a no-cost webinar on Thursday, May 21st. Komathy will share the story of how she came to write her books, read a little from one of them, and answer whatever questions you may have.
I’m particularly excited to explore with her how books for children can be an important part of the work of healing from the historical and cultural ruptures that have become all too common in our days.
How does a book for children help heal the child we may be carrying in our own heart? And what do children have to teach us about being fully present to the world in all its contradictions?
Please join us, and don’t hesitate to invite anyone else you think might be interested.
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Together we can explore what Ezra Pound calls “news that STAYS new.”
