Writing thank you notes took less time than expected—I was done before the sun released its last ethereal light.  Addressing each card by name, it struck me how peculiar it was that I was writing a personal thank you, in my horrific handwriting, to a complete stranger.Someone whom I had never met, read my small humble letter asking for help and agreed to lend a helping hand .  How mesmerizing it is to be touched by the good in people.

When you are tapped on the shoulder by love, selflessness and extravagant generosity, sometimes your reaction is utter—well shock.  At least this was my experience.  You see, in today’s world it seems like these virtues, which can all be summed up into love, appear to have dissolved away like a bar of lavender soap.  Once perhaps, maybe in just my dreams, people loved more and loved in grandiose ways.  Technology was less rampant—less distraction meant more room for handwritten notes and giggles with neighbors.  Love was ravishingly alive.

But I digress, for to be truthful, if we could teleport back into the good old days people were the very same as they are today.  We are who we are.  The same potentials we have to love and hate remain unchanged.  What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun¹.

All I know is that there is incredible dynamic, bursting power within acts of love.  Denying yourself and choosing to love others, shakes, rattles, and purges any form of evil lingering within the vicinity.  I have been drastically changed from 146 acts of love.  Yes, 146 people donated to my cause and I have been totally unraveled and transformed.  I will go as far as saying my physical body reaped the benefits.

I continue to make strides.  Weight has gone up and I should be free of steroid treatment by mid-July.  The strength in my legs is becoming more tangible and it no longer feels like I’m walking underwater.  I call the phenomenon: sea legs.  So long sea legs, au revoir.

But before I go, I’d like to point out that Christ himself said: next to loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind; the greatest commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself².  I would like to think that the one who painted the horizon and threw the stars into the sky highlighted this for a reason.  Love is the key for absolutely everything in life.  It is of the upmost honor to carry the potential to love and hoarding it makes for a terrible offense.  Choose love and you will find your realm of influence begin to accelerate with extraordinary power before you can even notice the aerodynamic lift into the majestic sky.

¹Ecclesiastes 1.9 ²Mathew 22.37

Photo Credit: Heart Shaped Rock