Have you ever had one of those days where someone you didn't know touched your heart? It could have been as simple as a smile, opening the door for you, helping you load groceries into the car, picking up your keys after you dropped them or even running after you in the parking lot as you left something in a store while shopping?
The recent Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in Newtown, CT reminded us all once again how fragile life is, how we are all much better, happier, and safer working together and helping one another than we are alone. My heart goes out to the parents and families of all impacted by the terrible event. I am a parent of two young boys and can't imagine the heart ache they must be feeling. My prayers of peace are with them all.
Why does it take a such a tragedy to bring people together, to remind people of the blessings they have that money can't buy? The truth is, it shouldn't take a tragedy to remind us how important love and kindness are, and that a simple smile can make someones day.
The blessings money can't buy…
I am one who does not take the little nor big blessings for granted. I remind myself daily of the many things money can't buy.
As I emotionally worked through the Newtown shock last week, it really hit me. What is missing in this world is LOVE. People simply need to feel loved. It's human nature to desire to feel needed, cared for and that someone simply gives a rip that we exist.
Often times we complicate what can be so simple. We don't need a tragedy or a big charity event to give love. We can show love via Random Acts of Love (RALs) every day of our life. We can rake our neighbors leaves, scrape the snow off a friend's sidewalk, pick up the tab for the car ahead of us at the fast food drive-thru or simply pray with a stranger who is crying or yelling at a family member in Wal-Mart.
Random Acts of Love even at Wal-Mart
A couple weeks ago a lady almost ran over me and my son in the parking lot of a local Wal-Mart. Instead of marching over to her car to yell at her, I took a deep breath and explained to my son that we were not going to respond in a way that would make a situation worse. I kindly asked her if she was okay. She immediately started crying. She told me it was the worst day she ever had. She had a root canal earlier in the day, was fighting with her boyfriend and noticed that she almost ran us over but didn't know what to do.
She apologized and with tears running down her face, asked if I would forgive her. I told her I had already forgiven her before I walked over. I told her I would pray for her and hoped that she had a better day.
She then told me that I made her day. She said that what I did was the nicest thing anyone had done for her in a long time, that “I cared.” Wow, how sad was that? Her and I were both in the Wal-Mart parking lot crying.
She touched my heart that day in a way that I would have never felt had I not given her the benefit of the doubt and reached out to her with a simple act of kindness and love.
So What is #GoGiveLuv?
#GoGiveLuv is a movement kicking off today (12/21/12) the day the Mayans predict the world is going to end. Instead of worrying about if the world is going to end, we are going to focus on giving love. It doesn't have to be formal. It doesn't have to involve a big donation or even a big charity. All it takes is your heart. Your heart giving love to someone who least expects it.
#GoGiveLuv will enable us all to share the Random Acts Of Love (RALs) we receive, give or experience virtually. You can share the experience of the smile you put on a child's face in the parking lot, the park or a charity event.
Imagine having a place online you can go when having a bad day that brings you to happy tears because of the love you see, read, feel and hear because of others sharing their experience of such. Imagine a blog you can read to cheer you up or share a story of your own that will someday prevent someone from committing suicide.
In the simple nature of this movement, we are launching before we are officially ready. We are launching with a simple hashtag on Twitter. We have a Sees.aw board thanks to Robert Moore, already displaying beautiful visual display of the tweets and associated images. We'll eventually have a blog and more where you can share your stories, photos and more. You can join our Facebook page here, although we have hardly had time to get a simple logo loaded.
Today, Tomorrow, Next Week & Next Year!
All you need to do is #GoGiveLuv to someone in your life today.
The hashtag #GoGiveLuv will enable those giving and receiving these Random Acts of Love (RALs) to share such experiences for the benefit that the love may carry forward to others online who also need the love. You can share your experience via tweets and images using the hashtag, #GoGiveLuv.
The vision is that we encourage people to deliver these RALs every day, not just on a day of tragedy. Starting today it will be an all year long, 24/7 Twitter stream you can view with stories of love and kindness. A visual display you can experience with people being touched from both giving and receiving.
There are many people already excited about this movement so we may very well wind up with an official celebration day, local events, or who knows what. It's really up to the community and those giving the RALs and what to be part of this movement. It's not about me, not about you, or the hashtag or logo. It's about what we can do to change this world one Random Act of Love at a time.
I have copied a video below from Simon Jordan that you can watch for more information on this movement. Simon saw a late night Facebook post from me earlier this week sharing the idea as a brainstorm opportunity with my Facebook friends. The next morning he already had a video developed and launched. Wow, this is the kind of love I am talking about folks. The kind that people take into their own hands as they want to share the love with others, just because.
Be The Love!
There is enough bad, angry, mean, rude, yelling complaining, hating in this world. Choose life. Choose friendship. Choose sunshine. Choose love. It's that simple.
All you need to do is #GoGiveLuv!
Join the #GoGiveLuv Movement
If you want to help support the #GoGiveLuv movement simply comment in this thread or join our Facebook community. We'll get back to you soon and we'll all figure out as a community where we take this. I am so excited to see where the amazing people of this world take this.
You can check out the Hashtag report from this Tuesday night when we first shared the idea with our #GetRealChat community here “#GoGiveLuv” transcript.
