my love for you: Mission & 18th

Love is always the answer: Mission & 18th

The writing is on the wall: XOXO

Thank you Flax for the spray paint class and chance to really paint on the wall!

Secret alley off Bayshore near Industrial

My love, just waiting for you.

Love is louder - Bayshore & Industrial

Love is louder: Valencia & 19th Street

Not long ago, I saw Billy Bragg in concert.  During his show, he said the greatest threat to progress was cynicism. Not the cynicism of our leaders, or of political parties, but our own cynicism.  He told the crowd, "I go around singing to bring people hope."  Billy Bragg attained hero status in that moment.  

My epiphany came next: I knew I wanted to do something hopeful and bold.  Now, I can't sing to people. I only sing alone in my car with the windows rolled up.  But I do have an abundance of love in my life, and the i love you, too message.  In conjunction with launching the LoveYou2.org website for readers to download and print their own i love you, too signs, and share Get Love. Give Love. stories, I printed 1,000 i love you, too signs, and have been posting them madly, giving them away, and asking readers to do the same.  

It is important to me that the i love you, too message is free, easy, accessible and appeals to a variety of people. I enjoy watching someone's face light up when they know exactly what they are going to do with their sign. I wonder where these thousands of i love you, too tabs are hung, tucked or kept for reminding.

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 the i love you, too 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.

"Love is louder" first posted here.

hello again

One Saturday across several soccer fields, I saw the figure of a woman I instantly recognized as an old friend. I'd not seen her in years but just from her walk, the way she flung her hair over her shoulder, and stood at the sidelines I was certain it was her. I went to where she was now standing in conversation with a group of her friends and waited for a pause in the exchange and simply said her name.  Immediately she turned around beaming, her arms wide open and grabbed me pulling me tight, not letting go.  "How I've missed you!" she said as she hugged me for a long time.  Hello Again!

Bumping into this wonderful friend filled me with an incredible feeling of love that is stable - always there and never going away. Even though we both had hard stories to share as part of our catch up, she is the kind of friend that, though we've not spoken all this time, would hold my hand while I cried.  Hello Again!

These blast from the past friends and remembrances give me assurance that I've collected the needed experiences and people on my journey. Hello Again!

But then I'm reminded of a part of my journey where I've struggled, when the shadow side of myself was bigger or when I behaved in a way that I'm less than proud. In these moments I want to shrug away, turn my back, avoid embracing that person or memory. One day I curiously wondered, why don't I figuratively run across the soccer field to that memory for the embrace?  Why don't I shake hands with the shadow side and say "Hello Again!"  "Hello jealousy, welcome back! I think we know how to do our dance."  "Hello meltdown with the kids, there you are again!"  Ok, perhaps without the exclamation point but isn't there some similar recognition of where I've travelled, a bowing to the Buddha of the experience, if you will. 

I made this sign for myself as a reminder that all of the memories and reminders, whether they make me jump up and down with joy or require my courage to embrace, are indeed reminders and assurances that I have collected the needed experiences and people on my journey.

Hello Again!

original post here: http://getlovegivelove.blogspot.com/search?q=hello+again

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.

first posted here: http://getlovegivelove.blogspot.com/2011/08/story-behind-heart-you-are-enough.html

There is no one like you.

It is back-to-school time. We've readied ourselves. The backpacks are washed, clothes handed down, new shoes bought, and a menu for the week on the refrigerator.  There's been a bang trim, extra quarters hidden in the back packs, and the alarm clocks are set for what seems like way too early on the last day of summer.

Tomorrow I'll write notes and tuck them in their lunches. Because I have done this every year since whenever it was that they first had a lunchbox and went to preschool. Because my mom did this for me.  Because this is how you start school - with extra change stashed for emergencies and a note in your lunch.

Tomorrow's note: There is no one like you.

Even as you try to fit in, desperate to stand out: There is no one like you.

Not in any corner of this city, anywhere in this country, or any place in the entire world is there anyone like you.

Being you takes guts. It takes finesse. It requires courage. So no one else could do it. Only you.  Only you could take on this role and fill these shoes being the amazing creature you are.

We are lucky to know you since there is no one like you. 

PS - This just in: The year looks shiny and bright! 

Love Note Pads: Get Love. Give Love.

I'm having a blast with the Get Love. Give Love. note pads now available on Etsy and at Perch in San Francisco, CA. And more stores locations coming soon! Please email me if you have contacts for local stores who would carry the love note pads: LoveYou2.org@gmail.com.

Without meaning to be an experiment in love (but all of life turns out to be such an adventure!), these love note pads have become a huge reminder to me of the power of Get Love. Give Love. I've been using the love note pads to write, send, post, individual notes and as part of a live love note writing event. It should come as no surprise, but thrills me every time I catch a glance, that the front of my refrigerator is filling up with love notes TO ME!  Wow.  Big, amazing, true love surrounds.

I can't wait to see what you do with your love notes!  Grab a pad and a pen, write a note, post or send me your story.   It is divine to be able to watch the love floating around.

How will you share the love?

My love: Jackson Hole, WY display of affection

Yes, love is in Jackson Hole, WY

My love for you at Jackson Lake, WY

Live love note writing photos: International AIDS Conference

Last week at the International AIDS Conference in Washington DC, we had a live love note writing session in the Global Village's Womens' Networking Zone.

The Global Village was a hub for activists, providers, and visitors - generally an engaged and happy vibe through out the hall. Many artists and performers participated during the week's events.

The Womens' Networking Zone hosted several not-for-profit groups, an interesting series of discussions, and had sitting area for participants and guests to have small group discussions or rest from the non-stop schedule of events.

The Womens' Networking Zone theme, Make Women Count, was brought to life with the "Visible Panty Line" of undergarments brought from around the world later donated to a local charity.

Just behind the Visible Panty Line, we sat together in a small area on Tuesday afternoon and wrote love notes.

I enjoyed taking my shoes off and circling together with women from around the world and talking about our weeks in Washington.

A large march ended and spilled into the Global Village just as we began our live love note session. What a thrill when energized march participants joined in documenting the love around us.





Feeling and then seeing the love by and for the women around me in the networking zone was a beautiful experience:

Some folks talked about what they were learning and how life would be impacted once they went home:

Thank you to the Womens' Networking Zone and all the Live Love Note writing participants for an afternoon that reminded me of why we are here and giving me new energy to keep going.  Much love!