This is the eleventh Humans&Harmonies (H&H) blog post. Every Friday, another H&H blog post will be released. Each post will have an associated song that you can watch and listen to via YouTube. The songs are written from a perspective other than my own. This week the song is written about all of the people who have opened their homes to me on my journey. Click HERE to listen to this week's song called "Come On In!"
The lyrics to "Come On In!" are at the bottom of this page for reference.
This blog is a little different than my previous blogs. Instead of writing from an individual’s perspective, I am writing from a collective perspective — the collective perspective of the homes I have stayed in so far on my trip.
To give you some examples, I have stayed at a beet farms and cattle ranches, school buses and hotels, lake cabins and suburban houses, Tires Plus parking lots and coastal paradises, and many more unique places.
I have been astounded by the hospitality I have received around the country during this journey. Turns out, that “midwestern nice” thing might be more universal than my homeland likes to think.
At each one of my stops, I was offered hot showers, meals, clean water, air conditioning, a bed, WIFI, and a safe place to park. But more importantly, these people had a smile on their face when I knocked on their door. They were expecting me. They were excited to see me. They wanted to know me.
When I began this journey, one of my main concerns was that after the “adventure high” ran out, I would be left feeling awfully lonely. And that might have been the case if these people weren’t so skilled in making me feel special.
We would talk about my background and theirs, and these conversations would lead us into the deep topics — politics, religion, music, philosophy, history, literature, etc. Heck, I even got to play a round of “virtual golf” while talking about what it’s like to hunt a moose. You don’t get a lot of that in Wisconsin, I’ll tell you that.
One of the largest lessons this trip has taught me is that when somebody offers you something, such as a bag of goodies, it is not impolite to accept. For whatever reason, my intuitive response is to say “no thank you” — as if declining a gift shows that I have some higher understanding of the true intention of the giver. But the truth is that when somebody offers you something, they really want you to take it.
Isn’t that what we were supposed to learn from all of those Christmas movies anyway? GIVING gifts is so much better than receiving them; and in order for someone to give a gift, someone has to receive it. I’ve had to learn to receive them graciously, so that other people could give them. Hopefully, they have felt my gratitude, which is perhaps the only gift that really mattered to them in the first place.
Thank you to all of the wonderful people I have met thus far. I am here because of you!
Onward!
Lyrics:
come on in!
we got the extra oxygen
let’s begin
handshakes hugs and grins
come on in!
there ain’t no hesitation
‘cuz it’s always a friend of a friend
here take our candle heat
check the fridge and take what you can eat
make sure you fill your water glass
there’s a towel on your bed
come on in!
we got the extra oxygen
let’s begin
handshakes hugs and grins
come on in!
there ain’t no hesitation
‘cuz it’s always a friend of a friend
he doesn’t know what he can do
he feels guilty taking the guest room
there is one thing we want…
come on in!
we got the extra oxygen
let’s begin
handshakes hugs and grins
come on in!
there ain’t no hesitation
‘cuz it’s always a friend of a friend
oh let’s talk until the night ends
let’s paint the room with colorful stories
let’s fix the world with colorful conversations
so come on in!
