Get Inspired
Because what you do today will determine who you become tomorrow.
Love - follow your heart, no matter what.
What is love? When you wake up every morning, what is it that drives you out of bed, that motivates you or brings you a smile on your face? Love can express itself in many different forms, and they can proportionally co-relate with whoever or whatever you truly, deeply enjoy seeing, doing or being part of. I once watched this short video of a mom offering her 5-year old child a cookie, only any simple and boring one, that was indeed that child’s favourite cookie, shortly after taking a good and mouth-full bite off that cookie, the child looks at his mom, and with much content, both on his semblance and voice, he said: “Mom, I love you!”.
Some spectators of that short video were dropping out comments such as: “He didn’t truly mean it”, “He loves the cookie, not her” or “He only said that because she gave him his favourite cookie, he’s too young to say those words”, etc.
Some spectators of that short video were dropping out comments such as: “He didn’t truly mean it”, “He loves the cookie, not her” or “He only said that because she gave him his favourite cookie, he’s too young to say those words”, etc. That can all be valid points, of course, we are not here to inferiorize others and their opinions. The way I see it is, there is a different angle to that scenario, a different perspective, as a matter of fact, it is incredible how a short 5-10 seconds video like that can generate so many different opinions and point of views around the globe, a message is publicly given and people can chose to interpret it in any ways they truly desire. The meaning of love is no different from that, love can be shown, or in this case, interpreted in many different ways, and that is absolutely acceptable, you are free to do so, to feel what you feel, to not only love but also express your feelings. You see, the way I think is, that child loves that cookie, but he also loves his mommy, he loves that moment as a whole – he was cherishing it, and expressing it without fear that everything about that particular moment, in his small yet to-be-discovered world, was entirely perfect. Yes, that was his favourite cookie, but it was also a cookie given by someone that cares about him, that was there to make sure he was well attended, fed, loved!
Love can come in many ways, it can be a person, it can be your job/career, your favourite hobby, your go-to ice-cream flavour, it can be a simple “Good morning” or a “How are you doing today?”. You can feel love and express it, regardless of your civil status, it doesn’t matter if you’re married, single, divorced, widowed – love goes way beyond that. YOU are LOVE. Caring and loving others is great, but loving yourself first and foremost is even better.
Are you allowing others to see you, to love you? We are meant to accept the love we believe we deserve. Are you accepting and inviting to the environment around you or are you seeing your life pass by without a deeper connection to others surrounding you? Always be kind to one another, without expecting anything in return, life will balance itself out, and you will somehow be compensated for your genuine love and affection. If you see a grumpy face on your way to work, make sure you say “hi” and wish that person a good day. Greet your coworkers with a smile, hold the door for others near you, help others in need, you never know what’s truly going on that person’s head or thoughts. You may be having a bad day, but “that grumpy person” yelling on the side-walk could be having a day way worse than yours. The power we have as human-beings can change the world, love can go a long way. There is so much madness, sickness, tragedies out there and the least we can do is put an effort towards showing love and respect not only to family and friends but also to strangers anywhere you go. Is not worth it spending your time being mad, sad or upset about something or someone. If you’ve done wrong, get up and go apologize. Don’t hold grudges, don’t hold yourself back, your well-being is way more important than any other of those things. Be humble, life is about living, and life is short, stop making excuses not to invest your time and efforts towards others, give to receive.
It is a hard job to motivate yourself to do better, to show love, to BE love, especially from behind a screen. I wish I could be there right beside you to get you up, push you around and tell you that even small actions of love can go a really long way in this world.
Let me share with you a small story that happened to me and that stuck with me since then:
Back in 2004, when I was 12 years old, I had the opportunity to participate in a huge and lovely event called “Project Hope”. I remember it being really hard for my mom to agree on letting me go on that event since it was a full-week long project taking place in a different city a couple of hours away from home, that was my first time being away from my family “on my own”. Of course I wasn’t alone, I had a big group by my side, dedicated and kind-hearted people looking to make a difference for the ones in need in that city. We were a total of I want to say about 75-100 people, spread out in pairs with assigned neighborhoods to go to, door-to-door knocking trying to engage in conversations and simply being a good listener, asking about their day, sitting down for one too many coffees on tables full of strangers, people I had never seeing before, and trying to identifying their needs and other delicate situations. Before coming on this trip we had collected clothes, food and other supplies at home from family and friends in order to try and help those living in a more complicated reality than ours. I remember we also had a huge help from our sponsors too, donating a lot of every-day essentials, food, clothing, etc. – which we were all very thankful for!
While walking around, knocking door-to-door, as a 12 year-old young boy, I was shocked, to say the least, to see how diverse things can be. I was finding out, on my own, that life isn’t always fair. I had seen that on the news before, but now, I was seeing right there, right in front of my eyes, some were rich, some were extremely poor, neighbours not knowing or helping one another. Some people were so closed off, would just reject us right away, not even wanting to talk or simply say “hi”. Others would invite us in, have us sit down for a chat, have coffee and simply talk or cry over things that were bothering or upsetting them in life.
We were instructed to tell everyone, regardless of either how rude or how nice they were being to us, that we LOVED them, differences apart, we LOVED them, and that they could come visit us at the location we were staying to grab some of the stuff we were donating.
We were young and free, someone rejecting us at their doors would NOT stop us from moving forward and trying to reach as many people as we could. On my 3rd day there, this one particular situation happened where my friend and I were going up a street, again door-by-door, and we saw this lady leaving her house, maybe 2-3 houses ahead from us, and started making her way down the street, eventually passing by us. She had no smile on her face, her hair was messy, she was looking rough, she had a tired facial expression, she looked exhausted. While she was passing by us, I remember stopping her to say a few words, as simple as a 12-year old boy could approach someone on the street:
-”Hello there, good morning – how are you doing today?”
Her answer: -”I’m not in the mood to talk right now, kid” – on a higher and repulsive tone.
By then, she had already passed by me and was a couple of meters down the street, I then ran after her, stopped her again and extended a piece of paper we used to carry around with our address, period of time we were going to stay there and a brief message inviting her to come collect some supplies that could be useful to her and her family and then I said:
-“I just wanted to let you know that you’re loved, I SEE you and I LOVE you.”
She grabbed that piece of paper off my hand, looked at me a bit surprised, but still didn’t say a word, she still had that semblance with furrowed eyebrows and with her mouth curling downward, still showing somewhat disapproval of the fact that I tried approaching her again, and the she walked away, silently.
Days went by, we kept on doing the good work, spreading the word of love, being there for people in need. We used to come back to our post exhausted from walking around all day long, but still, at night we would gather on our sponsored tents to talk and re-encounter some of the folks we had stopped on the streets and give them their supplies. The smile on their faces were simply goosebump-worthy, the joy of seeing your hard work and efforts being rewarded by the look on their faces was absolutely priceless. On our last day there, before coming back home to our families, just right before we started wrapping things up some of my friends and I heard someone crying out loud, our supervisors/leaders were already assisting that person by the time we got closer, we then realized those were tears of joy, she was feeling overwhelmed with all the supplies and other “goodies” she was going to be able to bring back to her family. To my surprise, that was that lady from earlier that week, that not so friendly lady we met on the street! For even further startle, she then recognized me from a couple meters away and shortly after our eyes locked she started crying even more. Without really knowing what was happening I then approached her to give her a hug, she then turns to my supervisor and said:
-”Earlier this week, I was going through a huge breakdown moment in my life, everything just seemed wrong, I had then convinced myself of committing suicide. For my luck, this stubborn boy in front of you stopped me on the street and with just a few words and a simple gesture made me give up on harming myself.”
I was left with no words, it was such a powerful moment for me at that age, I couldn’t contain my tears for the next couple of minutes after that. Words and small actions CAN make a difference, LOVE is not about being in love with someone or something. I realize now that LOVE will come and go for free, am I accepting of love in my life? Am I accepting of spreading love to others? If “yes” is your answer, then you’re on the right path. Show love without expecting anything in return, BE love in order to BE loved. You can make a difference.
-Follow your heart, no matter what!-
