February is love month and I have a love challenge for you! If you have a story of love of any kind, friendship, parental, teacher, caregiver, romantic, mentorship... anything that demonstrates love, I want to hear about it and I will share it with everyone next week.
Inspire us. Make us cry. Make us sing. Make us cheer. Make us grateful. Show us the beautiful heart of a fellow human being or perhaps the precious, intuitive love of a fur baby. Anything that says love to you.
Maybe you want to tell us what you do when you feel lonely and need to feel love? I watch cat videos and stories of people being kind to animals. They warm my heart and give me hope.
You could tell us your favorite love song or share a song that makes you feel love or loved. Or tell us your own definition of love.
To kick things off, I’ll share something that just happened to me. The other night, I was feeling terribly alone in my pain about a situation. This was after a few conversations with caring friends during the day and much time in prayer and meditation. But by bedtime, I was back in despair again and feeling isolated.
I thought to myself, it would be so nice if someone who knows what I'm struggling with knew how bad I felt at this very moment, and sent me a text just saying they care.
My phone was on silent but within thirty minutes, I noticed a text had come in about the same time I made my wish. That is love in the air!
This friend followed an unknown, unexplainable prompting to send me a text at 10:15 p.m. at night. She didn’t worry that she would wake me or disturb me. She just followed the loving nudge in her heart and it came at the exact right moment. I felt hugged and cared for. I felt loved.
Maybe you have a similar story where you also felt a sudden pull to extend love and kindness to someone you know, or perhaps a stranger? Or maybe you were on the receiving end? If so, I want to hear about it.
So … show me the love! It can be a song title, a sentence or up to 500 words. I’m not going to count the words, but I’m suggesting a limit in case "the love" carries you away.
; )
All you have to do is respond to this email, share some love and let me know how you want me to give you credit: full name, first name and last initial, or anonymous. If you don’t specify a preference, then I will just put anonymous.
I may not be able to share all of them, but I will choose the ones that I think will touch the broadest group of people. If there are too many to pick from, then maybe I’ll do it two weeks in a row. Heck, maybe I’ll share the love all month long. We’ll see how it goes, but I promise I will read them all.
Remember, love is a unifier. Love is larger than fear. Love is greater than hate. We can all use more love and a little bit can go a long way. And it's free!
For today, open your eyes and look for ways love is trying to find you. Also, look for simple ways you can show love to others.
I look forward to reading your stories of love and sharing them next week and perhaps the week after that (or maybe all month!). Until then, be the love you want to see in the world and watch it come back to you in unexpected ways.
