i love you and your plants

i spy heART: Hayes Valley Farm, San Francisco

What's not to love about Hayes Valley Farm? A solar water pump, reclaimed city block, thriving plants, repurposed old windows in the garden, and lots of volunteers - I like!

i spy heART: Hayes Valley Growing Home Community Garden Project (SF, CA)

Growing Home Community Garden's mission is to provide a community garden where both homeless and housed San Franciscans work side-by-side to grow nutritious food, access green space, and build community.  The garden's fence art has inspired me many times.  Now the Ben Eine "Great Adventure" mural watches the garden in a prophetic way.

i spy heART: Hayes Valley, San Francisco

story behind the heART: TIME

TIME

time passes

time stands still

time stops

time flies

suspended in time

time heals

back in time

time slows

The TIME piece is difficult to photograph but one of my favorites.  

Over several months, I was incredibly conscious about my experiences with time and made an effort to pause in the moment and savor that current reflection about time.  I collected the thoughts and played with them until they turned into these phrases (now stamped on rad metal tape sent for this project by my fabulous sister). I was curious how this process would feel similar or different to my experiences being conscious of love - both time & love are intangible, necessary elements that we seek after but can't buy. 

Like exploring my various relationships and experiences with love - being conscious of time has made me ever appreciative of the abundance of 'just this' moments and opportunity to choose to be present in any situation.

What experiences would you add to TIME? 

Famous: A poem by Naomi Shihab Nye

Famous

BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do.

story behind the heART: Love is louder.

I first wrote "Love Is Louder" early in the LoveYou2.org journey and keep it as an anchor post on the right side of the blog.  Here is an excerpt from that writing, telling the story behind the "Love is Louder" heART.

I know that simply living in this vibrant world and being conscious of current events puts us in frequent contact with stories of tragedy, divisive messages, and marketing that sells unattainable perfection.  While these negative elements compete for our attention and shift our focus, there is something else I know – Love is Louder.  

Now, I don't think that these signs will end war.  We still need to stock our food banks and teach everyone to read. There are vaccines to be developed.  Justice is not universal. There is real, important, critical work to be done. But I do believe that hope is a rallying call, and sustaining for those working to make the world a better place.  

Sometimes it takes a little love to pull on the marching boots one more time.  Of course it is love when we take a deep breath and say from our heart, "I am so very sorry."  With love can come the acceptance we are seeking for ourselves or for others – the kind of love that fills up space so that there is no room left for hate. A little hope, a little love can inspire one to do more, to try again, to believe that change is possible, or remind us why, in fact, we do this work at all. 

Thank you for joining me in sharing the love. Love really is Louder.

i spy heART: Narberth, PA

There is a lot of love in Narberth, PA.

i spy heART: Fishtown/East Kensington, Philadelphia

Driving down the street somewhere between Fishtown and East Kensington, Philadelphia I saw this fantastic mural with paintings on other nearby walls and buildings. Much of the art looked like neighborhood artists & based on neighborhood themes. This "RIP" mural was one of my favorite pieces of street art I saw during our Philadelphia adventure - not for the quality of the art or location but because of the message and boldness. The "RIP" mural is adjacent to the public playground and on a block where kids were running around and several elders of the neighborhood were keeping watch from their porch or behind a screen door.  It felt like the perfect location to document and hold dear the people you are missing.

Many times in life, I've felt something so strongly I wanted to take a sharpie and scrawl the message on the wall in large letters - proclaim it in a big way.  This Fishtown artist did just that and made a melancholy subject hopeful and bright in the process.

Lucky for me, I saw the perfect fence nearby and hung up a bit of heART. While we were hanging the signs, one of the gentlemen who had been keeping watch over the neighborhood kids and an eye our crew shouted across the street to me, "Now that is just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful."  

"Wow. Thank you," I replied. "I love what you are doing in your neighborhood - all the stories painted on the walls, it's amazing."  

"I try.  It looks good doesn't it?"  he says back.  

Indeed.

Love your heart, Fishtown.

Manayunk, PA

1000th sign

This is the 1000th i love you, too sign posted yesterday in East Falls Philadelphia, PA.

What I'm loving about life while posting the 1000th sign:

• I was cycling the Schuylkill River Trail with my peeps.
• The bridges on the Schuylkill River are gorgeous.
• We finished our bike ride just before the rain started (we've already cycled until soaked in the rain this week).
• The minis said "thank you" a lot because they were having so much fun.
• This LoveYou2.org project has taken me on fabulous adventures.  
• I'm curious what fun experiences exist inside the freshly printed box of 1000 i love you, too signs.

story

I was on my way to summer camp when I found this out of a Wawa in Chinatown, Philadelphia. Unfortunately, when I came back to take a photo of where I found it- it was gone. :(

I gave it to one of my friends:) Share the love!

Amish Country, PA

South St, Philly

i spy heART: Old City Phildelphia, PA

Video of today's installation of signs of love in Old Town Philadelphia, PA.

story behind the heART: You are enough.

You are enough.

If I could, I would come into your house at night and paint this on your bathroom mirror.  This way, you'd see the message morning and night as you brushed your teeth and combed your hair. Maybe after reading it over and over, this message would sink into your memory and become part of your truths, something you never doubted. You are enough.

Of course you are going places. I know you have big dreams, goals and a to do list. But know this: You are enough. Just as you are, right now, in this very moment you are enough.

Yes, there are times you cry in the shower so no one will know. Yes, some mornings you wake up and stare out into the blank new day thinking you might stay curled up in bed. Even then, you are enough. Tell yourself. Over and over. You are enough. 

You are moving down your path in life - maybe you skip, perhaps you dance, sometimes you might even do the backwards walk. There are times you will stop on your path to smell the flowers or examine the hole in the ground, that's just how going down your path works. It does not matter how you go, but go you will. However you are traveling down your path, please smile the smile of someone who knows that they are enough.

Good morning, friend.  You are enough.

i spy heART: Germantown, PA

story behind the heART: In all my life I never met anyone as beautiful as you.

My sister left a voicemail the week before Christmas, "I'm sending you something kind of random.  It's not a Christmas gift but I saw this and thought you'd do something fun with it." Her package arrived and I put it under the tree anyway.  What I opened on Christmas morning was a vintage scrabble set she'd scored for a song because of missing pieces. Who was she kidding? This is THE BEST GIFT. Scrabble tiles I could do anything I wanted with mailed right to my house? Mega score for me.

It turned in to: In all my life I never met anyone as beautiful as you.

To me, the sentence describes that moment in the dance of knowing someone when you have each peeled back enough layers to glimpse, as you lean forward, the shape or outline of one another's souls.  Just at the edge of the end of mystery, ever appreciative of the stories, quirks and amazingness of another human being. It happens in a moment. You are sitting there and wonder if you weren't actually born just to be here at this very moment listening to this story, taking in the breath and substance of knowing this other person.  You then know that you were and as you perceive their magnificence you think, or maybe say, "In all my life I have never met anyone as beautiful as you."

The In all my life I have never met anyone as beautiful as you. signs seem to be the most photographed. I've loved observing all the different folks who whip out their smart phones and snap a picture of the scrabble tiles. I wonder where those pictures go.  Are they texted to someone in particular or posted on someone's Facebook wall?  

The first edition of In all my life I never met anyone as beautiful as you. was crafted with the actual scrabble board, which was rad but did not last long in the January rain. I salvaged the letters into the wood sign. "Where are the scrabble letters?" you've been asking.  The second edition was recently finished up by the weather, as well.

But guess what? You can write, text or say it even without the picture.  Do it.  Tell him or her. In all my life I never met anyone as beautiful as you.

story behind the heART: Aren't You Something!

My youngest son anticipated the start of preschool with glee. He'd spent three years being toted to drop offs and pick ups, art and music classes and various playdates of his older siblings. This rite of passage was long anticipated and in his mind, overdue.

When he brought his work home at the end of each week, he savored showing me each piece one by one. I realized he'd observed and banked years of praise heaped on his older siblings during similar Friday rituals.  I smiled and offered some observation for each piece and when he seemed particularly thrilled with something, "Wow! You must be pleased with yourself.  Let's hang this on the fridge!"  He would grin and walk over to place his work ON TOP of someone else's.  It looked like it felt mighty good to be three and have your work finally on display in the kitchen.  One day I said, "Look at our refrigerator just covered with all this great work you are doing."  He nods in response, "I think we have to get another refrigerator."

But, of course.  Aren't You Something!

Aren't You Something! is hanging lower on the fence for the littles who walk by.  I'd seen so many kids having to look UP at the art on the fence.  When my kids were younger, I'd purposely hung art low in the house so they could observe it.  Since my kids are now as tall or almost as tall as me, I'd completely forgotten and hung the art fence from an adult perspective. Aren't You Something! is aimed at the just-learned-to-twirl-on-your-tip-toes crowd, those who fall and get up again several times each day, the ones walking by with a hand up to their caregiver.

The truth is, many adults could use a good look in that mirror, too.

love has landed in Philadelphia

City of Brotherly Love.  Love has arrived.

We packed less clothes to make room for the signs of love, my heART.

Ready for an adventure and looking for fences to share the love.  Send suggestions for fence locations in the greater Philadelphia area to: LoveYou2org@gmail.com.

phantom artist adds to signs of love

There was a bustle of activity yesterday around the Glen Park art fence - plenty of visitors and passersby.  In the midst of it all a phantom artist added two signs to the fence.  First we notice this brilliant piece:

I was immediately captivated with the light bulb. Genius. The fabulous font cut from sheet music spelling "Listen" is perfection.  And the renegade recycled wiring to hang the art piece?  Let's just say I now have a definition for "love at first sight."

It was as we were admiring the "Listen" piece, checking it out front and back when we were surprised times two.  Hanging just above "Listen" is this piece of delight:

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!  Your cleverness amazes me.  I love tiny art.  A googly eye?  Ohmygosh.  So much amazingness in just three symbols.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera collected tiny vignettes, miniature murals.  This collection is on display in a back hallway of Kahlo's Blue House in Coyoacán, the collection presented almost as an aside to the artists' extraordinary lives and work.  I stood in Kahlo's hallway mesmerized by the miniature murals painted by folks artists - scenes of the ordinary. The scale of these tiny paintings, the anonymity of the artists, the documentation of the everyday, & devotion of Kahlo and Rivera to their collection have held a fond place in my memory for years.

Seeing this tiny piece of cardboard art on the fence reminded me of the feeling I had standing in Kahlo's back hallway, staring at the miniature mural collection.  So much communication in such a small space.

I am not the only one intrigued by the phantom artist's work.  While we were admiring the new art and cleaning up near the fence a woman walking by asked, "Are you the artist here?"  My son and I explained, "Yes. Except for these amazing pieces just added by a mystery artist."  When the woman's eyes landed on the tiny piece of art she grinned and reached for her smart phone, "Oh my gosh! I just have to take a picture to send to my boyfriend."

Phantom artist, you rock!  Here's what we have to say back to you.

Love @ Luna park

I love you and your smores!

City of Brotherly Love: pop up heART heading your way

I'm working on some pop up heART for Philadelphia.  Any suggestions for possible fence locations?

Love on the windshield

As seen on Bartlett & 22nd, San Francisco, CA