World love

World love - http://world-love.appspot.com/

Good friends of ours are currently going through the hardest times people could ever face.

I've faced that feeling of helplessness and loss last year when my father suddenly passed away. It was the time when I found it hardest to go on with my life. I was simply unable to comprehend the why, and it shocked me to emotional paralysis.

I still did everything I was expected to do but carried it on with an empty, numb heart. I was a functioning shell of a human being for a while.

What got me through that experience was recognizing how much my father loved me and how much I shared in that love. I shortly started noticing through that wall of sadness how the closest people to me had reached out with their hearts trying to get me through it. It started with an unrelenting physical and emotional embrace by Greg, who in the next days silently did everything I could not. It continued with my brother Alex whom I saw as I came off the plane for the funeral, in whom I had always found my strength growing up. Over the next months the people in my life reached out to me in some way or another, and I remember how each of those encounters went.

I was merely nodding thankfully at the time, but I realize more than a year later that every word, every hug or pat on the shoulder, every awkward silence was part of the healing. They were all expressions of love in one way out another.

I drew off of that to be able to carry on.

Ever since that day I have seen love in its most unexpected forms all around me. It is flooding our lives every second. All it takes is for us to acknowledge.

So here is my gift to Mara this very first Christmas of her life: LOVE.

My daughter is so blessed with people who send her love from all over the world.
During Thanksgiving break we had installed two large maps on the walls of her playroom: one of the world, and one of the United States of America. Today we are giving them a purpose.

We are going to place little markers on these maps to mark any locations we can think of where love manifested within our lives.

Our world is the world of the people around us, so we are asking you to help fill this map with love!

This way we'll remember every drop of love, and maybe even send one back in return every day when Mara is going around the house in her thorough inspection.

So when Santa stops by your place on this Christmas Eve, tell him (and us) of any places where you found a little extra drop of love at some time in your life.

It could be your birthplace. It could be place you met your significant other. Or a happy vacation you've had. The house of your best friend from childhood where all the cool slumber parties were happening, or where you had your first kiss.

Even simpler, it could be the spot where most recently you acknowledged how much love there is in your world. From family, from friends, from the kind person that smiled at you when you were frowning the other day.

It could be the location in which you are right now, reading this post.

Here's how you can help out. We've built a little interactive map at http://world-love.appspot.com/.
To add the love:

• Look up the place on the map, add some thoughts if you want to, and click on submit.
• Alternatively, e-mail / Facebook message / Google Plus post / text either Greg or me and we'll add it to the maps.
• Add/send however many places you would like.
• Feel free to share this post or the map link with anyone else who might enjoy it or want to contribute.

We do not keep track of whom each dot came from. We'll just keep the locations themselves and any notes you might want to add. If you want to, you can of course sign your name in the note.

This Christmas will be a remembrance of how much we each have in our lives.
May we all find strength in recognizing the love that abounds all around us.