Pure everyday magic with my friends Amy and Layla as we demonstrate how The Love and Kindness Initiative works!  Please visit our new YouTube channel at Transforming Through Love Love and Kindness to view an ever-growing selection of brief, heartwarming, and ultra low tech videos.

I recently revisited Everyday, the 2001 video by Dave Matthews Band.  Do you remember the heart-opening video in which Judah Friedlander goes through his day dedicated to hugging people, staying on task until he succeeds in sharing brief moments of love and kindness with a wide variety of people?  

I’m always uplifted from watching that video.  I can watch it everyday!  I can watch it again and again and feel the same deep joy in my heart as I felt the first time I saw it. 

Do you feel the same way?

If you want to feel the way Judah Friedlander appears to feel in that video, I invite you to join The Love and Kindness Initiative.

I do it a little differently than Judah.  Instead of holding out my arms for a hug, I thank strangers for being loving and kind in our transitional world and then, if it feels right, I offer them a bag of heart-shaped beads to keep as a reminder that someone sees what they are doing and honors them for it.

I’m not touching them with my arms.  I’m touching them with my heart.

The walls that divide stranger from stranger instantly crumble.  People cry.  People hold out their arms to hug me: warm, healing, heart-connecting hugs.  People thank me for taking a moment to appreciate them while urging me to keep doing what I am doing in the world. 

Like Judah, I’m not doing much.  All I’m doing is saying thank you everyday.  It turns out that saying thank you everyday is a very big deal these days to many people who are starved for appreciation.  And, like Judah, the not much I’m doing is impacting many more people than I know. 

I walked into a store a few weeks ago to offer a bag of heart beads to the owner.  I’ve known him casually for many years.  I knew his name, he didn’t know my name. 

After I introduced myself and thanked him for all the good he does in the world, he said, “I’ve heard about you and what you’re doing!  Thank you so much for finding me.  It takes a lot of courage to go into the world as you do.  Please don’t stop doing what you’re doing.  We need more people like you.”

He’d heard about me and what I’m doing!  I so love this.  Who said doing good works in our transitional world goes unnoticed?  I’ve met a few more people during the past few weeks who also said they’d heard about me and what I’m doing.  You can feel all the good feelings I feel from saying thank you to people who don’t hear those words often enough.  You can be a world healer.  

Please, please join me if you feel so called.  Let’s do this together.

As I say in The Love and Kindness Initiative page on www.TransformingThroughLove.com, I’m not doing this to be a hero, a role model, or a star.  I’m doing this to be one of many Johnny Appleseeds of Love. 

I share the above story to inspire you to join me in being another Johnny Appleseed of Love.  I’ve never not been uplifted from doing this.  No matter how low I might feel when I leave home to go into the world, I return feeling humble to be the recipient of so much love and kindness from people I didn’t know when the day began.  

I met a man named Ray at the fish market a while back who asked me an interesting question:  “You’re giving out so much love to the world, Sheryl.  Who’s giving love to you?”

I wasn’t expecting that question and didn’t know how to respond in the moment.  If Ray finds me again and asks me the same question, I now have an answer.  “Ray, I’m getting so much more love back than I could ever give on my own.  It feels wonderful to be in the flow of giving and receiving love, but I’m not doing this to get love back.  I’m doing it to build, a little more each day, my Community of Love.”

Ray, I remember giving you the link to my website.  Maybe you’re reading this blog.  Please know that I honor our interaction, and I remember the story of how you treated the two people living with disabilities to dinner.  They were longtime customers at your bank.  Taking them out to dinner is a perfect example of The Love and Kindness Initiative in action.  Thank you for inspiring me, and thank you again for joining my Community of Love. 

It’s easy to join The Love and Kindness Initiative.  Look for people to appreciate as you go through your day and say thank you.  That’s all it takes to be transforming your life and the lives of those you meet through love. 

Let’s do this together.

Everyday.

Copyright 2019 by Sheryl Hirsch-Kramer.  All rights reserved for any future use.  If you would like to repost this blog in its entirety, ask permission first by indicating your proposed use on the contact form at www.TransformingThroughLove.com.  After permission is granted in writing, post away!