radical love

this is radical. it cuts to the heart of the matter. it is the medicine this world needs. thank you for your courage and your offering. please send all of my love to yourself, your daughter, laura and edie.

i love you.
catherine
10/22/07

Home Away From Home

The Whole RV Bunch

Laura the RV Drivin' Rockstar

Be Part of the Experiment!

RV Living

Aedan and his girl

Life in the RV

With Peggy Hemphill in Chicago

ZZZZZZzzz

Benjamin working on footage

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.

Vermont and Prospect - Back at it

Just got back from Hello Love on the corner of Vermont and Prospect. It was exactly what I needed to get back on track with Hello Love. I’ve been feeling kind of hopeless about the state of the world and the polarization of the world and the polarization inherent in every moment. I’ve been feeling like Hello Love has an insurmountable task ahead.

But today gave me hope. It reminded me that the smallest greeting can affect a change. Edie, Maria and I all went out and while we were all our usual nervous selves as we got underway, immediately people were smiling and waving and greeting us in lovely ways. We settled in immediately and all, almost instantaneously felt buoyed by the love that came back at us.

People were hungry hungry hungry for it and they took it in. It’s the simplest thing to do... greet people with love, with openness, with kindness and such a little of it can go such a long way.

My favorite moment was when a guy walked past us and asked if we were the ones that sell the t-shirts! I thought “This is working...” The word is spreading.

I think we must have waved at over 1,000 people today....and a good 888 of those people waved back and smiled or flashed the peace sign or nodded or said Hello Love back. And I can’t help but think that even the tiniest shift in energy for each person that we interacted with is a huge shift for that little corner or a significant shift for the energy around all those people today. I think it makes a difference.

Maria, Edie and I all felt so happy to have done this today. It was a boost, a reminder... an hour or so filled with potentiality.

The fact that our muscles hurt from holding the signs above our heads or waving is a great reminder that our heart muscle is working as well... working to include... working to extend... working to embrace, to transmute... It’s also a reminder that I am willing to endure the muscle ache if I feel steeped in JOY. And it’s so easy to stand in JOY when an energy of LOVE is being exchanged.

I don’t know how Hello Love will grow...I don’t know what place it’s meant to hold in the grand scheme of things... but I do know that right now, going out and waving each week... showing up... is what I want and need to do. I want to practice standing in the energy of openness and love.

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.

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.

Expansion and Contraction on a Sunday...

It was another really amazing morning with the Hello Love gang. We were back at Beachwood and Franklin from 9 am until noon. We had our t-shirts hung on the fence and four of us out there with signs waving and greeting the drivers and a few pedestrians as they passed. The response is really just incredible. People are so receptive and delighted. And every honk and smile makes every minute worth it. Of course there are the obligatory wavers and the non-smilers and the puzzled looks. But the honks and peace signs and astonished but happy faces far out weigh all of those.

We were asked a lot more today what we are...what we're about. My response was something like, "We're a group a friends who want to spread a little love. We're asking people to experiment with greeting people silently or not with 'hello love.' People coudn't believe we weren't promoting something or selling something (except t-shirts to spread the word) or a part of a religious movement. Everyone seemed somehow relieved, like, 'oh, we can just relax and enjoy this exchange.'


Anyway, I was feeling so EXPANSIVE and full and happy at the end of our time. My husband and 3 yr old daughter met me and we all drove home. But here's the fascinating and tricky part. I've been totally exhausted since. And when I checked in with the other Hello Love women after last time, everyone reported a similar feeling. We were all high and full and charged and then we all collapsed. And not only that, in the last few hours, I've really felt myself as constricted and not at all 'hello love.' More like 'hello leave me alone.' Of course this at first makes me feel like a failure or a fraud, but then I get to thinking that this is how we exercise our heart. I think that's what we're doing out there.

When I'm standing out there near the street waving at drivers-by, I'm staying as connected with the flow of the heart's energy as I can. I'm breathing in the present moment and then shining out from the heart. It feels like a tangible energy that is rushing over and out from my heart. I can tell when I'm connected and when I'm not. I see it in people's faces. I can tell when it's real. And I think it takes a tremendous amount of energy and effort to keep the heart open and full and flowing. Each time we all practice this for these three hour meetings, we're getting a little stronger. But I also think it's normal -- at this growing stage -- to contract a bit afterwards. I myself am experiencing fatigue and grumpiness. :) But I'm also smiling at myself in the thick of it. I'm thinking, "Isn't this fascinating." That might not be what my husband is thinking... but he is patient and kind and really gets what we're doing even if I collapse afterwards.

So, I'm writing now to capture this journey of total exhilaration in sharing this message and likewise the rebound contraction. It just reminds me how this really IS a PRACTICE. And we all can get better and stronger and more steady in the offerings of our hearts....

Hello love!

Selling T-shirts and spreading the love...

What a great morning! We set up at Franklin and Beachwood with about 100 t-shirts. We hung some of them on a chain link fence and hung our HELLO LOVE signs all around that corner. At first, I'll admit, I was shy. I picked up a sign and started tentatively to wave at passers-by. I felt a little awkward. I didn't feel brave.

But then I stopped to remind myself what all this was about...and it's about offering love to everyone and anyone. And I thought...I can do that. I can just stand here and smile and wave and open my heart and offer a little love. I grew increasingly courageous.

Three hours flew by. Soooo many people honked. So many people waved. Many stopped and bought a t-shirt. One woman told us about a cool art project she was working on highlighting groups of women who gather together to create something lovely. We were that. She took our picture with the t-shirts. Many talked to us from their car window thanking us for what we were doing. The sun was BEATING down, but we were all so full, so happy, so alive with offering a little unexpected love to those who happened to be driving down Franklin or Beechwood this morning.

Something about this is absolutely right. It feels GOOD to say it, to share it...to offer it. Hello Love. Hello love. Yes you!

Momentum...

I just put a "Hello Love" sign on the front door of our house. Why not welcome LOVE in whenever possible?

I'm more and more excited about where this little experiment could go. After our Saturday adventure in Hollywood and the positive feedback, we're all feeling energized to get the word out more and get more people practicing this. Edie and I decided that it would be great to take a walk once a week during which we're focused -- not on our own STUFF -- but on extending the hello love energy to whomever we pass. It's a service. It's fulfilling.

I love the grass-rootsy feel of this. I love the idea of a little phrase making a big difference. It's playful, but powerful. In the spirit of the grass-roots feel, I welcome any suggestions or ideas (big or little) about how we might continue to build on this idea.

T-shirts are just around the corner...and I'll be wearing mine a LOT. A download-able, color-in-your-own HELLO LOVE sign will soon be on the site. We want people to send in pictures of themselves holding the sign. We want the word, the idea to spread globally!!

Just start talking about the idea with your friends. It's all about word of mouth...

Write in and share your experiences...We'd love to hear...

And HELLO LOVE to all you reading this. Hello love. Yes you.
xo

In the beginning...

I want to tell you about my “Hello, love” experiment. These days, when I greet my daughter or my husband, I often say, “Hello, love.” Sometimes I greet my dear friends this way too. It feels natural and wonderful to say.

Then while sitting in Starbucks the other morning – my office away from home – it occurred to me that I could do an experiment. I began to wonder how I could expand the love circle. Naming something is a powerful thing. If I call you LOVE and mean it, it resonates for both of us.

Now, don’t worry… I’m not going to suggest that you greet everyone you meet with “Hello, love.” I’m only going to suggest that you THINK it. It’s actually pretty remarkable.

I started doing this as I watched people come and go through the Starbucks door and then, too, when I headed home. I silently greeted my fellow walkers with “Hello, love.” And I couldn’t stop smiling.

There is something so delicious about this.

It takes the critical mind or the fear based mind or the separative mind right out of commission. And instead, I found myself immediately seeing what was MOST LIGHT in each of the people I greeted, what was most REALIZED LOVE. And I felt full of appreciation.

Also, I felt like I had some fabulous secret… like I could be a Johnny Appleseed of Love on a quiet morning walk.

Of course, one can’t help but see the grumpy, broken, blocked parts too. But with the “Hello, love” experiment, they are secondary. At least for a split second, they are secondary.

And if we add together all our split seconds of love, we begin to change our world.

Try it. See what you think. Report back! Practice. Try it today.