HELLO LOVE thoughts at 3 a.m.

I spent the holidays in Santa Fe with a rather bad cold. One night last week, I woke up at 2 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep until 4 a.m. I read for awhile, but then began to think about Hello Love. Here are a few of the rambling middle of the night thoughts I had:

Hello Love acknowledges the inherent beauty and perfection of each person we meet.

It is a two word manifesto declaring that our very substance is nothing but LOVE...disguised as many other things...but nothing but love.

Hello Love is small enough to creep into the cracks or fissures in our created personalities and hit the well-spring of love -- the pool of vibration that matches our greeting.

Hello Love is huge enough to instantaneously, tangibly LIFT all who give or receive its blessing.

Sit in a space and greet that space with Hello Love. You will feel the space crackle -- releasing, setting free, sending on its way -- all that is not love.

Sit with yourself and do the same. Greet the majestic self and shed the layers that do not honor its essence -- your essence -- of pure love.

And Hello Love to all your resistance. Hello Love to all who temporarily refuse to receive the name of love. Or all who we struggle to see as love. Whatever a person does is a frenzied, letharigic, attacking, crazed dance to be seen. Bad boy, amazing student, good father, criminal -- but what if we just continue to name them LOVE, no matter what the dance.

Hello? Love?
Love! Hello.
Hello Love.

Happy New Year All.

Passing By My Hello Love

A friend asked me what I did this past weekend. I told her that I stood at a street corner for three hours waving at passersby while holding up a sign that read, HELLO LOVE. She was amused and confused as to why I would do such a thing. I thought about her reaction. I began to wonder too why I would participate in such a thing. A political protest, an anti-war rally or a march for immigrant rights are all understandable causes for going out in public to make a stand and to cause a stir. But who is going to get all excited about receiving a hello love greeting from little me.

And I felt little standing on that street corner a bit bashful and self-conscious wondering what people thought of me. And, at the start, my efforts at hello love didn't generate a whole lot of stir or movement. People in their cars or on foot looked my way as I half-heartedly waved. They contemplated and then passed by my hello love. No wave. No honk. No emotion, no response, no love. No thank you.

Of course I would get a positive reaction here and there (people cannot help but to react to the novelty of it all) but for some reason I would focus on the passersby who didn't wave, who didn't send me a hello love back. I felt like I was at a grocery store standing behind a card table at the end of aisle 3 trying to convince people to sample my food offering. But I was offering up my hello love as though all I had for people to taste was tap water in a Dixie cup with stale bread, instead of a generous wedge of a nutty, tart cheese along with a nice ripe in-season pear.

And I try as the morning wears on to offer up the nutty cheese and sweet pear, and to focus less on how others respond, or not. By the end of our hello love exercise I realize just how far I have moved from my fear of rejection and apprehension to solidarity and connectedness. And every time I do this exercise it takes less and less time for me to bring my cheese and fruit to the table. And as you pass by my hello love, one day, know that I stand at the street corner for three hours on a Sunday morning greeting people to remind myself that I have more to offer than bread and water.

Daring to Stand Alone (even just for 10 minutes)

Another day out at Franklin and Beachwood! How we love it there. We're going to have to spread the love in some new areas, but it's hard to leave that lovely corner.

This morning, I got there before anyone else. And as it turned out during holiday rush season, everyone else was going to be half an hour late. That left me with a dilemma. Should I unpack the car and stand alone with my sign? Or should I sit in the car and wait. I was oh so tempted to do the latter. But I managed to boot myself out of the car and onto our corner. I set up the t-shirts and then picked up the sign. I walked to the curb and then walked back. I gave myself a pep talk. I took deep breaths. I walked to the curb again.....and then turned around and rearranged the t-shirts. I called my husband for moral support. And then I thought..."This is ridiculous! All this is about is standing in love and sharing it. Why am I being so timid?" It's amazing the dance that can go on in one's head....Even outside the context of Hello Love, we are always second guessing ourselves. Should I smile? Should I offer help? Should I extend? Or should I wait for someone else to do so? Should I try to look put together, reserved or cool? WHY BOTHER??? At least, that's what I began to say to myself this morning. Just get out there, I thought, and hold your sign and breath into your heart and offer a little love this Sunday morning.

So I did. And Ahhhhhhh. People immediately waved. And then moments later, Maria showed up and I had a partner.

This morning was lovely because we had so many people stop by to say, "I was hoping you would be here...I saw you two weeks ago." Or "My boss said you have to go see the Hello Love girls down at the corner" or "We're developing a new website about changing our world though compassion and love and we'd like you to be a part of it!" Hurrah!

I feel much more energized this time out. So far I haven't 'crashed.' I feel the momentum of this and it's lovely. I feel the Hello Love muscle growing stronger...

We're ordering a whole new round of t-shirts thanks to our pal, Indira, who brought us a bunch of samples to choose from.

Madley is going to compose a Hello Love song but would like some lyrics! There's a challenge out there for anyone who might be reading this. :)

Hello Love to you all this sweet Sunday. Happy Holidays.

Filling the cup

The Hello Love women gathered yesterday for our first 'retreat.' Our meetings -- to this point -- have been short and a bit hectic. We decided a few weeks back that we needed time to settle in and dream big. What a glorious day we had. With delicious snacks a-plenty, we nestled into a big couch and all checked in. What we discovered over the course of a couple of hours was how important it is for us to say 'hello love' to ourselves...to give ourselves a break...to replenish...to fill our cups. We obviously LOVE the idea of extending love, but were also realizing that being open and vulnerable and sensitive enough to RECEIVE it is equally as important.

ON a FUN FUN FUN note, we talked about two really great things. One -- we're planning a Hello Love Poster Coloring PARTY on Valentines Day. Come one, come all and then return to your neighborhood with Hello Love Posters galore. Two -- we made a joke at one point about the fact that soon we'll need a 'Hello Love' bus to travel around the country. But soon our joke became a "why not?" And we're thinking (still with a little smile on our faces) HELLO LOVE SUMMER TOUR 2007. :) Watch out. We're checking into renting RV's. :)

Meanwhile, we're all still practicing and feeling great about it. One of our members gave a talk today -- a persuasive speech -- to her class all about Hello Love...and everyone loved it. Most importantly, we all affirmed that it's all about baby steps... Each day we greet ourselves with Hello Love and a few of the people we see each day. We want it to slowly but surely become a way of life.