Spreading Love in Sidewalk Chalk

Proud to be an HF-L Cougar <3 <3 <3

Backpacking on the shoulders of friends

When a man with muscular atrophy told his friends that he dreamed of traveling the world, there was one small problem...how could he see everything he wanted to from a wheelchair?  With poor accessibility, even in cities, how would Kevan be able to maneuver in the more remote places like mountains to get to the vistas he was dreaming of?

Cue friends...

Seven of Kevan's closest friends created a backpack that would allow them to carry him in their Eurotrip, allowing Kevan to experience Europe in a way never imaginable via wheelchair.  They raised money online to make his dream a reality and are now creating similar backpacks for the public so that other people, like Kevan, will be able to get out of their wheelchairs and experience more of the world!

When we look for what is in the best interest of others, we often find that we serve ourselves, as well.

Be the change, it might just change you, too!

Thinking Outside of the Box, Employing People with Disabilities

Bitty and Beau's Coffee Shop employs at least 40 capable workers, who happen to have disabilities. 

 I'm pretty sure the world needs more dance parties.  

And I love coffee.  

So on top of the fact that this is a great effort to be inclusive and offer employment to people that generally go unemployed (because of either lack of employers understanding disabilities, or just a lack of "thinking outside the box"),  it seems this idea also brings a whole lot of joy, humanity, and personalization to the daily grind (get it?  coffee shop?)  Badum-ching!

Time is Precious: Live your WHOLE life

Live your WHOLE life.  Not just the beginning and the end.

Love is Colorblind: An adoption story

Love is love is love.  Good people do great things.  Love goes the extra mile. <3

The Key to Happiness: A Harvard Study

The quality of your closest relationships is the key to happiness.  Honesty, communication, ability to depend on our close relations when we need them, ability to be ourselves because we trust those close to us to accept us as we are.  Look for those people in your life that you can depend on.  Look the the helpers.  Look for the dependable and the honest and the people who are fair to you.  Look for those who communicate with you openly.  Those people will be the greatest influences on how happy you consider yourself in your life.  Be one of these people for others to influence lives in a positive way and to contribute to the happiness of others.  Go forth and be happy!

You're never too old!

Because growing old is necessary, but growing up is optional!

What makes you different? Where's your focus?

When you think about your differences...what do you focus on?

As we grow up, our focus shifts from our inner core and who we are to how we look and what we do.  We could all use a few pointers from our inner-child to re-focus back to what really matters.  What makes us different, is who we are at the core.  And those differences are worth celebrating.  These kids don't see their differences as negative, or as a positive for one and negative for the other, they see them as positives for both of them.  Because, quite simply, they are who they are!  Celebrate!

Be the Change...4Oceans

What happens when people see a problem and want to solve it?

They start on their own, and they create a movement.

4Ocean.com

A good reminder...

7 Years Old...A Re-Write

She rewrote 7 years by Lukas Graham
Posted by New Age Origins on martes, 22 de marzo de 2016

A beautiful re-write of "7 Years Old" with the revised lyrics for a better world for all of us.  

Be the change. 

Love is...

Love is...(insert all of the quotes and poems and information you've ever heard or felt here).

Love may be all or none of those things but I think that Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Langauges, is really trying to get at how each person feels love.  Not only this, but also how giving love in the way a person feels it (or not) can be the difference between a mutual love persisting or not.  As Gary writes: 

People are different. What makes one person feel loved will not necessarily make another person feel loved. By nature, we tend to express love to others in the way we wish they would express love to us. When our spouse doesn't respond positively to our expressions of love, we get frustrated. The problem is not the sincerity of our love; the problem is that we are speaking the wrong love language. If we speak our own love language but not our mate's, we will fail to communicate.

Love, then, is not enough in and of itself, if it is not communicated in a way that the receiver of that love recognizes it.  That is to say, we all have different ways of receiving love, the same way that we all have different ways of learning or receiving information; Some people really need visual information to learn, while others need to be physically involved in the learning process or it will never stick.  The same is true with love, according to Chapman.  Like teachers, lovers also tend to err when they stick to solely teaching or loving others in the way that they themselves learn or receive love the best.  If you learn from simply hearing lectures, it is easy to assume that this is how all of your students will learn, because that is your personal experience with receiving information.  Similarly, in love, if you feel love when other people touch you, it is only natural for you to feel that the best way to express your love for others is through physical touch.  

What Chapman explains, though, is that in love, there are five major modes of expressing love that trigger a receiver to feel the love that you are giving: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, and Physical Touch.  Each of us tends to feel love when it is shown in certain of these categories, while when love is shown to us via the means of a different category, it's as if the lover were simply talking about the color of the wall; it just doesn't translate for us.  

For this reason, understanding and communicating to your partner about what makes you feel love is really important, not only for your satisfaction, but also for theirs.  Imagine the confusion and stress it must cause to be giving love in the way you think another person should understand, but having that person tell you they feel unloved.  It would certainly be frustrating and hurtful to feel that the person you love feels unloved even despite all of your efforts.  We all know that loving (in any of these modes) takes a lot of courage! Your partner or yourself may feel like your efforts to show your love are unappreciated when in reality they might simply not be translating for the other person in the relationship since it isn't their "love reception style" the same as hearing lectures isn't my learning style and will never translate into useful or memorable information for me because it just doesn't.  If you give me gifts, while I appreciate them, they don't necessarily make me feel more loved.

I highly encourage you to do this exercise with the people that you love;  Take a look at the brief online series that gives the background and basics of the love languages.  If you are feeling that there is no hope, be sure to read the whole thing, anyways and to remember your unconditional love.  When we are feeling unloved or unappreciated, we often shut down or push others away.  The love languages can also be a way to open both ourselves and others up again; it may not be immediate or a joint venture to speak the love language of your partner, but if you find resistance about opening up or seeking help to better your relationships, there are ways to interpret the negativity from our partners to find out what their love language(s) is (are) and to start using those in our communication in order to get back to a place where our own love languages can be understood and expressed back to us.

Love is... complicated, complex, different for everyone, received differently by each individual, can be directed and expressed in many ways for many people...the list goes on.  Find your love language, find the love language of those you care about.  Help others to feel the love you give, and help them to know the best ways to communicate their love to you and then love can really be like "all of the quotes and poems and information you've ever heard or felt." 

Self-reflection

Sometimes you must look inside yourself or spend your whole life blaming others.  Self-reflect.  Know thyself.  Understand the inner workings of your being and be conscious of your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions and how they are interconnected.  There is great power in knowing why we do what we do or think what we think.  There are hidden layers that affect it all.  Find them.  Know them.  Dissect them.  And then be free.

A 100-Person World

If the world population statistics were broken down and represented by just 100 people (a much easier number to contemplate than the actual global population...this is how it would look.

If The World Were 100 People | GOOD Data
When you shrink the world's population down to 100 people, this is what you get:
Posted by GOOD on lunes, 14 de marzo de 2016

If you're reading this...you're in the minority because you actually have internet.  Think about that.

Perspective.

While some people are talking about building up walls...

...others have been using them as a tradition since 1979 of unity between two nations.  

Along the southwest border of the United States, where a wall separates it from its neighbor to the south, Mexico, there are people who don't see the wall as a way to divide humanity, but a way to promote humanity.  They see the wall and they say, "how can we use this to connect with people that we're told not to connect with?"  The answer since '79 has been Wallyball...and it's exactly what it sounds like: volleyball over the international border wall between the U.S. and Mexico!

Every April, teams unite on both sides of the border to compete across the wall as a sign of friendship and joint condemnation of the division of people.  These people recognize the importance of keeping strong ties between their friends and neighbors, even when the powers-that-be don't share or promote the same logic and/or emotional connections.

When we see each other as humans, when we connect over our love of fun and sports, we are olympians.  We are champions of the world and of humanity.  We say "walls are objects, but we see you as humans, like us, and we appreciate and acknowledge you and your struggles and your triumphs." 

What a beautiful demonstration of continuous friendship and playful rivalry over an object meant to divide, that only makes the people who REALLY understand it, grow closer.

Be the change, wherever you may be!

See more at the following links: Quartz and Sliptalk.