Day 6... WHEW!

Dear friends,

Well we're definitely ON THE ROAD. None of us have had time to sleep, let alone blog. But tonight I'll try to catch up a bit. We are having a crazy, magical, hilarious time. We cannot believe how much time it takes to handle the logistics. We cannot believe that we packed for cold fall weather and it's like spring. We can't believe how much we rely on Starbucks for happiness. And we can't believe how loud two four-year-olds in a small space can get.

Here's a quick recap to date:

Thursday, October 4th - We left for Seattle via Burbank. Laura and I had Aedan and Kate running wild in the airport while we tried to check eight bags – two of which were incredibly cheap and too heavy so the handles ripped off and we had to pay overweight charges. We were the nightmare travelers everyone shakes their head at. The flight was fine and we arrived in Seattle, drove to Olympia and saw my husband, Andrew, as MacBeth in MacBeth on opening night. He was great...

Friday, October 5th – Ben had Laura, Edie and I talk about Hello Love on camera and then we drove out to Issaquah for our first big interview with David Spangler. We left the kids with Andrew and Laura's mom, Susan. Susan was amazing and had about 300 art projects planned for the kids. They went to the children's museum as well. We met David Spangler who was gracious and wonderful. We were all a little nervous for our first interview, but he was kind and clear and had a great sense of humor. One thing he spoke about that really moved me was that being in a body IS a spiritual experience. We somehow often think that we have to ignore or belittle or deny the importance of the physical. But the physical is a spiritual celebration as well.

That night we had an amazing Hello Love Gathering thanks to our friend, Annie Fitzgerald. She graciously opened her home to us and invited a bunch of amazing people. We got to talk about Hello Love and share stories. We sold t-shirts which is always fun. I love to imagine people wearing the shirts all across the world. :) The group was also so deeply generous and showered us with donations for our travels. Deep thanks to everyone that joined us that night...

Saturday, October 6th - We practiced in the morning in the wonderful Olympia drizzle. We stood near the capital. Not many cars on a Saturday morning. But we had one guy open his car door and practically get out to offer a huge thank you. We left for the airport after much luggage CHAOS. And I think one of the happiest airport moments I can remember was driving up to Alaska Airlines and finding four skycaps waiting to take our twelve pieces of heavy, crazy luggage. I was near euphoric with relief. (There weren't skycaps in Burbank.)

The flight was fine. The kids slept a lot. And I read a wonderful book called Here If You Need Me. I found myself sobbing several times... very moving...

We didn't get in until 11:00 and then had to juggle the crazy luggage up and down escalators and into trains and into shuttles and finally by 1:00 am into the hotel. My sweet mother-in-law, Nancy, was there to greet Kate and me. She played with Kate all the next day while we were in New York...

Sunday, October 7th – Cheryl Cortese, Edie's mom, met us in New York and we started by interviewing her. She spoke about gratitude in a beautiful way and about the goodness in people. And how she has always moved through life acknowledging and greeting that goodness. She has been tremendously successful in her life through building networks of goodwill and love and support, really. A joy to be with her. We all headed down to Battery Park and handed out cards to the people in line to go see the Statue of Liberty. Ben got some good shots before a very nice park ranger gently kicked us out for filming. :) Then, we headed to Ground Zero. I hadn’t been there. So moving to stand quietly with our signs and greet people.

Then, we headed up to Rockefeller Center and met several of my dearest friends who were willing to practice with us. It was wonderful to have tea with them afterwards and interview them about their experience. I was so touched that they were willing to give it a go... so whole-heartedly...

Times Square was great. We stood on the island and had many sweet interactions... And then, finally back to Edie’s mom’s hotel by Central Park.

My high school friends had encouraged us to try the Today Show the next morning. We thought about it and decided to rearrange our plans... Yes, we WOULD wake up at 4:30 to head on in to NY to get in line...

Monday, October 8th – We were all a little silly with no sleep. Turns out Matchbox Twenty was playing for the Today Show so there was a huge crowd. We were all crunched in and spent a lot of time holding up our signs high above the crowd even when no one was holding theirs. Lots of our neighbors asked us about the experiment and really loved it... I do believe there was a flash of us on the show. :) We left after about two hours though as it was getting a little claustrophobic.

We had a great hour or so walking in NY just holding our signs as we went. People responded beautifully. We found a huge LOVE sculpture at 56th and 5th and took some pictures...

Then, well, the rest of that day was RV day. We all headed out to Tappan, NY to pick up the RV and had to wait there for HOURS. They were very nice but we were a bit stranded. We all practiced driving in the parking lot. Finally, we had to zip back to the hotel to check out and get on the road to D.C. We were a half-hour late for our already LATE check out. But they gave us a break.

Again, CHAOS and SWEAT as we packed. But we did manage to get a nice shot of the RV pulling out as the sun was setting...

Laura is a rock star behind the RV wheel. She just boldly jumped in and drives the 32-foot wobbly home with great finesse. Ben, too, has no problem rocking and rolling down the highway. Edie is less happy behind the wheel and would probably be delighted if she didn't have to drive again. I... haven't taken a turn yet... Hmmm. I'll report soon.

We didn't get in until around 11:00 or 12:00. And dragged ourselves to bed.

Tuesday, October 9th – Washington D.C. Slept until 8:00 which felt LATE. We all needed it. Had a film meeting this morning and then two glorious interviews today. Philip Hellmich and Susie Dillon from Search for Common Ground. They were both WONDERFUL. We were so moved and uplifted and grateful. We'd had a rough morning, again, juggling kids and time and logistics... but the interviews made it all worth while. We also had a little time to practice on the Mall by the Capitol.

Tomorrow morning - We're stopping by the White House for a little Hello Love outside the gate.

I know this is mostly a list of what we've been doing.
It's something else entirely to tell you of our inner journey.
Needless to say, it's been a roller coaster – and we've all fallen apart already several times. But we've also all had glorious humming moments...

Love and gratitude to you all.
Hello Love.