This article was originally shared on a different site, but I still find the thoughts relevant to today’s world, so thought I’d take a moment to refresh it and share it again.
Thanks for reading. xo, Mrs. Family Trip
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I lost the charm on my bracelet.
Mr. Family Trip gave me a bangle bracelet for Christmas years ago and dangling on it was a charm that holds sand from our beloved beach we lived at for years, a bracelet crafted by a local artist. I wore it on my left wrist for years and dearly loved it. It wasn’t perfect. The design was flawed as the edges were always catching on things. But its imperfections made it more precious.
Then one day those edges caught and POP – the clasp flew open and the saved sand, my only connection to the beach in a season of change and Blue Ridge Mountains now, flew in the air. To somewhere. Lost.
I scoured the carpet as long as I could…until I had to get in the car to get a little someone. My left wrist was naked.
Later that afternoon, when the family was gathered in the kitchen sniffing out dinner, I casually mentioned I had lost my charm. I explained where it popped off, never to be seen again.
Immediately, all three took off upstairs where I found them seconds later, searching the entire upstairs for my charm. They weren’t asked, I didn’t beg.Â
They did it because they love me.
As I watched them, on all fours, crawling around, my eyes got teary. Sometimes we look for love in all the wrong places.
The moment made me ask myself: where else do I miss the signs of love? Can making others feel love actually be this simple?
In the raging, terrible, mean and vicious political tumult America has thrust itself into, it can be hard to feel love. We talk about hate, borders, terrorists…people who don’t believe and who didn’t vote…petitions that need to be signed and politicians that aren’t listening.Â
In the middle of all this, we need to stop and spend a little more time in the connective small moments that make us human. We need to show love.
It is now almost a cliche, but we really do have to be the change.
We can, and should, offer small signs of love to any human being, regardless of their beliefs or their Facebook posts.
I’ve been trying to think of ways I can show love lately. And I think the steps are small. Yet also challenging.
Here is what I am trying –Â
Don’t drive like I am the only one whose time on the road matters. By letting people in, smiling, understanding how to zipper merge, and being polite, I can allow my actions to speak respect. As we plaster our bumpers with stickers of the politicians we believe in (or, more tragically, of the ones we hate), let’s remember to show the person in the car behind us how we drive with love.
Reading opens my heart and my mind. Science proves that by reading, we understand the human condition. It is easy to take pictures and news clips and dehumanize faces. Novels and books challenge that. By reading and seeing life through someone else’s experience we truly begin to feel empathy. Reading opens worlds, and we need the world opened right now.
I pick up trash, and my kids do the same. Mr. Family Trip and I both work in the environmental field. We believe in the power of being stewards of the Earth. There is a reason why nature, National Parks, and hikes are where we find happiness. I want the Earth to have places for my kids to retreat to, trees for them to sit under, and oceans they can swim in. Watching the plastic shopping bags blowing in the wind on the side of a marsh, beside a seagull pains me. My family and I always pick up that plastic bag.
I want to be a responsible community citizen. So much of the hatred I have witnessed seems to result when we shrink our world. I know when I live inside my own walls, in my own comfort bubble, it is so easy to feel right all the time. But when I volunteer, my world expands. I am usually left wondering who the experience was really helping: me or the organization I showed up for. Usually, it’s me.Â
There is love (so much love) in the world. There are also so many opportunities to be the stewards of love. These don’t have to be large acts, they don’t have to be statements. They can start in small places.
Love can be as simple as getting down on the floor and looking for some sand behind glass.
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Mrs. Family Trip has been a published essayist and writer on parenting and travel for over a decade. Once a month, she shares unique thoughts and inspirational tips for parents on The Family Trip email list. Don’t miss it!