listening

Deep breath. Hmmm. I am currently sitting in the waiting room at the ferry dock, we are waiting to board and head back to the mainland. I have so many thoughts and my fingers feel almost frozen on the keys because of mind overload. There are so many things to say I can’t think of just where to start or how to start it.

Hmm, ok. Well, we have exactly one week left on this adventure. I feel like when we arrived in ohio half a week ago I was just wishing that it was over right then… seeing Jason around his family made me miss mine a lot and I also was missing having time to myself. But as we’ve been learning love is a lot about choosing others over yourself and though it can be uncomfortable, it is worth it. We have had such great conversations.

One of jason’s relatives shared a story of how she paid for someone’s meal at subway the other day and a friends family in Pennsylvania talked about how they had volunteered at a drug rehab home in philly. As we travel people are always asking us to share our stories and so its really nice to hear from others as well.

Stopping in Connecticut to surprise our friend Adam was lots of fun.

We got to meet a good friend of his, Karen, who shared stories of her past 4 months in Italy. Something that she was saying really stood out to her there was that the people did not multitask. If you were conversing with them they were totally focused on talking with and listening to you. Not half listening while doing a million other things like we have a tendency to do. I thought that was really cool. That’s something that always stands out to me; good listeners are almost like sparkling lights. I know, I talk about sparkly lights a lot :)

(that yellow speck is a firefly in adam's front yard btw....)

Anyways, from Connecticut we left with a number of love notes to share at our show and started making our way to the island of Nantucket.

It is an interesting place, very quaint and historic looking. During the summer months it is bustling with tourists and people who have summer homes here.

It’s a wealthy community and at first I felt like, “what are we doing here? These people don’t need any help.” But I quickly remembered that its not about financial or physical need, its about heart need. I say, “not here” pointing to my head, my mind, “but here” pointing to my heart.

We decided to rent a car and we met a somewhat cynical guy at the car and bike rental shop who didn’t seem to like us much and didn’t think we should be helping out in a place were so many people are not “in need” and we talked to him about why that’s not the point and though it was hard to tell if he received any of that I think explaining it all to him helped reaffirm it in our own hearts.

Next we headed over to a nursing home and as Emily said they were very eager to let us help right there on the spot. When I walked in the door I automatically felt nervous and kind of uncomfortable and honestly I didn’t really want to be there… there’s a lot of sadness in those places. But I know that love is a decision, so I pushed down my feelings and I ended up sitting with an older gentleman named Sam. He shared story after story with me; how his niece and her daughter had come by just the other day to plant flowers with him; how he had worked making boats with his dad when he was younger; he had also worked in a galley kitchen and waited tables on a big boat; he once snuck a little duckling into the nursing home inside his jacket because he wanted to give his friend some food and water.

he loves painting and drawing pictures for people and encouraging and helping people… he’s younger than many of the residents and so a bit more capable.

My job was to sit and attentively listen. It was fun and so much easier than I thought and he was a really neat guy, I know he had even more stories to share. We ended up having dinner with him there and so Em and Jason were able to hear some of his stories. Even though the place is uncomfortable and full of strangers they need to receive and give love just as much as anyone else. Sam has so much courage and hope and he is such a positive influence on the place, I’m thankful that we could help brighten his day as he brightens the days of so many of the residents.

After we left there we went to see a friend from school, Michelle, and meet some of her friends. It was really great!

They were so excited to talk to us about love and so we got a lot of video responses and some songs and promises of artwork to be sent to us. Her friends were made up of local Nantucket islanders, a bunch of kids who were born and raised on the island and come from all walks of life. They were very open and accepting of us and eager to listen to our stories as they shared their own. Something that one guy, James, said that stood out to me was that love comes in the little things. The things all around us like butterflies. Everyday pieces of life.

Later that night we went to our hostel to get some sleep, because we had been up since 5am, and we ended up staying up late talking with two of the managers of the place, Jamie and David. I feel like we frequently end up staying up much too late simply because we meet so many cool people. They were excited to hear our stories and said they would mention us on their facebook page and send us their love notes. I think David may even write a best selling book on his thoughts on love.

They also let us write the question “What is Love?” on their chalkboard and the next morning we had a few cool responses.

I am so excited about our show and sharing everything we’ve gathered with all of you! We also would like to have a live feed from our show on here so if you can’t make it you can at least check it out from wherever you are… we’ll get all that kind of stuff figured out eventually.

Well anyways, those are some thoughts from the past couple days….. sorry for the length! I guess to sum everything up…. I’ve been learning that love is a decision: sometimes I don’t feel like it, sometimes I would rather go sit in a coffee shop by myself and read or journal than help someone or listen to them (and alone time is good too! Don’t get me wrong!) but people need love and we can all give it, a lot of times its as simple as providing a listening ear and our full attention.

As i post this we have arrived in Jackson, New Jersey where we are staying with ou friend Meg :) tomorrow we will be spending the day in new york city. we'll post again soon!

Have a wonderful wonderful last weekend of june!

<3ginger

ps. we found annie!

(sounds like a band right? :) )