today today I live for one thing... 1:34 PM

Yesterday we were able to connect with the Road Home (http://www.theroadhome.org/) in Salt Lake City. They are doing some great stuff here! Their mission is to help homeless families and individuals to get off the streets and back into the community. We had discussed fixing dinner for them, but after we talked with the volunteer coordinator we found out it was too short notice. However we could still volunteer to help out in the Playroom later that night :) Since the dinner didn't work out we wanted to help in another way. So we found out that the Road Home asks for birthday bags to help the parents of kids who are celebrating birthdays. I think we all really loved the idea so we set out to Super Target to stock up.

The birthday bags were asked to be made up of things like cake mix, icing, brownies, disposable pans, candles, party favors, and gift cards. We compiled them all together this morning and will be dropping them off in just a few minutes :)

In the Playroom last night we were able to talk and play with a lot of different kids :D and they were superrrr cute. Some friends in the area came with us and at first seemed a bit overwhelmed. The room was full of very loud, very active kids ranging from ages 3 to 11. I think one of my favorite things to see was Jason and Avner awkwardly standing by themselves and talking when this little girl suddenly ran up and grabbed Jason's hand. She just stood there smiling at him, not saying anything. Haha the look on the boys faces was a mix of embarrassment, uncertainty, and obvious amusement. In the end everyone became more comfortable and we had some fun conversations with the kids. We also were sure to bring along some paper and crayons and ask the kids what love was to them. We got all kind of responses, from some very silly/joking ones, to some really beautiful genuine ones. Ging took a group picture of those we'll put up later. I'm so glad we'll have them for the art show :D

We'll now it's on the road again! Colorado here we come

<33emilyy>

another good morning quote :) 12:36 PM

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around"

-Leo Buscaglia

goodnighttt 3:17 AM

Today we arrived in Salt Lake City just in time for dinner :)

Tomorrow we are going to be helping out at a local shelter that looks amazing! We will be making a lovely hand crafted dinner to hand out and do some crafts with local kids

We'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow, I'm quite excited :D

a quote to consider...

"People who matter most are most aware that everyone else matters, too" - Malcolm Forbes

blogger problems ! 2:48 AM

It has come to our attention that a lot of people have been trying to post comments on our blog but it hasn't been working. We're not sure if it's a browser problem or something with blogger. It works on Ginger's old version of Safari, but not on Jason's iphone Safari.. so we're going to see if there's something we can do to fix it for everyone.

In the meantime if you have anything you would like to say but can't, please feel free to email us at loveeachone@gmail.com ! as long as you tell us which post it's for we can post it for you. we want to hear your thoughts and make them available for others to hear as well :)

the mission statement 12:22 AM

Things have been a bit busy these last few days, the group has been adjusting since leaving Stan in Cali for his internship, posts have been put up on late nights, and internet has been hard to find. So I'd like to use todays post to restate what our mission is for this tour. The purpose behind everywhere we go, the people we stay with, and the different ways we reach out.

We want to love individuals where they are.

We want to know what individuals think love is.

We want to show love to individuals.

We want to encourage individuals to show love to others where they are.

This trip has taught me a lot about love. What's made each day of this trip different than the way I usually live is I've been much more conscious of how I act in love. And like our posts have stated we've discovered love is a decision and not always an easy or comfortable one. Though that statement is simple, it means a very different thing when it's attached to an action. I think it's something I've always known, but it appears much more real to me when I'm trying to work up the courage to ask a few older gentlemen sitting on their front lawn, or a boy sitting deep in thought by his bike what love is to them.

This last week has been a bit different than the beginning of the trip. I think in our heads we were all aiming to show love to the homeless or the lower class communities. But that alone is not what this trip is about. It's about loving every individual. Louisiana showed us that.

These last few weeks we've been able to stay with friends which has been cool. It's been a different season of the trip. It's shown me a few different things. The first being that one of the greatest ways of showing love to people isn't with money, it's with time and a listening ear. It's awesome to see how many people just want to talk. They just want to share stories and have an experience with you. Wether it's a discussion about love over coffee or lounging on sofas while sharing beliefs and future plans. Those moments have been some of the most rewarding. Those moments I've known, I am in the right place.

The second reveal has been the realization that often times it's easier to show love to a stranger than it is to someone you know. Sometimes I'd rather go give away a meal to someone than have to sit down with the team and discuss why we're not getting along. It's more fun. Less awkward. But in order to genuinely show love to strangers I believe we must be well rooted in loving the people that are closest to us.

Last night we stayed with one of Ginger's sister's friend Evan in Tacoma, Washington. It's been so awesome to see how much love strangers have been willing to show us. Evan took us out and showed us the town :) We visited a nearby park and explored. We toured the city and were given in-depth information on the city. I've decided Washington is one of my favorite states to look at.

In every city we go we don't always volunteer at an organization, or give away lots of money, or meet tons of people. But we always invest time into someone. Even if it's just one person. Because that is what our mission is. To let that one person know that they are important to us. They are loved.

<33emilyy

free flow thoughts 5:18 AM

so, as jason described in yesterdays post, thursday we left redding, california and our lovely new friends there to head up to portland, OR. it was sad to leave, but the drive up was incredible! northern california and southern oregon are full of beautiful mountains, forests, and rivers. it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful nature is and how different each place looks from the one before. i even got to choose the music so we were listening to a lot of chill music that i havent been able to listen to while driving (because it usually puts everyone to sleep because we have in the past had a tendency to not leave till like 5pm) so we listened to some alexi murdoch, brooke waggoner, fleet foxes, fiction family, sigur ros, and coldplay. i love music and i feel like driving music should fit the location and my mood, you know like a soundtrack..... and i just felt like those artists were so right at that moment. anyways.... heres N. Cali....

...... and here we're driving into S. Oregon.... ..... and here we enter into Portland, OR.... where it rains 9 months of the year and is known for its coffee shops, breweries, and hippies..... we are staying with our good friend meggie. her sister owns her own coffee shop in town, her mom is the pastry chef, and meggie is working as a barista there over the summer... i think its so cool that it is a sort of family run business. and its a really lovely little coffee shop.... very comfortable and open and has lots of natural lighting through the big front windows, its really family friendly - they even have a play room for kids! and the food was excellent! i had a dirty chai latte and a piece of pumpkin loaf and it was sooo good. i really really like coffee shops :) we hung out there for a good while, talking with meggie and friends and just enjoying spending time together we went geocaching next and just wondered around and also got to talk with some different people and hear their thoughts on love. i'm getting so excited about our show and being able to share all of these really wonderful thoughts on love that people have relayed to us! people are so inspiring and encouraging.... i feel like often we individually are too hard on ourselves and feel as though we have nothing to offer or maybe because we aren't experts on something we have no advice to add. Frequently when we've asked people what they think love is they shy up and say "ohh i don't know, i'm not the right person to ask," but they usually go ahead and right something down or tell us something while we're recording and i am always encouraged by what they have to say. I can't wait to share them! each new one expands my thoughts on love. at the end of this adventure i'll share mine... its gets longer every day.

I've been thinking a lot about the future and my purpose and my dreams the last couple days, and thinking about how love is the key to everything and how love should be the leading force behind all of my dreams....

i was reading a friends blog the other day and they had a quote up that said,

" don't ask what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, then go and do that. because what the world needs is for people to come alive." - J. Eldridge

it really got me thinking about self confidence and identity. things that most people struggle with through adolescence and even as adults.... second guessing whats in our hearts. i saw this poster up on the side of a building today....

and i was just thinking about how when you're in love you're sort of living a dream.... you hearts alive and you're not worried about what other people think of it. and to live your dream (your destiny, your purpose, your passion) you have to live in love... in love with where you are, who you're with, what you're doing.... love drives out all fear of failure.

i'm not sure if any of that made sense.... i'm sitting here just typing off the top of my head and its 2:30 in the morning and we are getting up early and going to the market tomorrow..... sorry if that was all over the place! O_O anyways..... we headed into downtown portland just as the sun was hanging itself low in the sky making the shadows stretch far across the ground.... its my favorite time of day because the lighting is just amazing, everything is warm and the long shadows create a beautiful contrast. looking at the world at this time everything just seems more friendly and easy going. we found a park and played on the swings and the slide for a little bit :) and we walked and ended up at Powells Bookstore.... which is an amazing place. its so huge. i didn't make it any further than the paper sculpture and cooking sections :) meggie found a cool devotional book and a couple others, and em and jason spent some time in the childrens books section :) then we wandered the steets in search of some fooood and we ended up at pita pit.... it was really good. i love how fresh everything is. i do not know why we don't have these in sarasota...

Our portland project is comprised of these disposable camera that we are leaving at meggie's sisters coffee shop, Posies Cafe..... they will be sitting on the counter along with our business cards with the instructions:

-take a camera

-take a picture of yourself

-take a picture of something/somewhere/someone that you love

-return to Posies Cafe we figured if this sort of thing would work anywhere... portland would be the place :)

its been really really lovely to spend time with meggie and explore portland.... and do you know, it didn't even rain today.... i guess we brought a little bit of the california sunshine with us :)

tomorrow: Tacoma, Washington

until then, good night and good sleep :)

ginger

Painting the town Red(ding)! 6:42 AM

Well...I guess it's high time that I posted something on here, since it's been a little while.

I guess picking up where Emily left off, we finally made it to Redding!

Redding wasn't originally on the docket of places to stop, but we sure are glad we made a point of stopping there. Way back when we were in Nashville (a whole 2 weeks ago!), you might recall us telling a story about how we met these cool guys while at dinner and ended up hanging out with them later that night. Well one of them, Blake, had a bunch of friends out in Redding that he said we should hook up with when we passed through. I love new friends, so it sounded like a great plan.

To sum it up, Redding was awesome. We visited Bethel, a church/Bible school, spent the afternoon longboarding/geocaching at a park, and then met up with Blake's friend (our new friend) Lori for dinner at Chipotle. Post Chippy, we met up with a ton of other new friends and burned the midnight oil chatting it up. It seems we have a new place on our list of "places we need to revisit".

(Sun Dial Bridge at our new favorite longboarding spot)

I love how when we choose to step out of our comfort zones, make decisions grounded in love, things work out so perfectly. By choosing to reach out to these 4 trendy guys at the Silly Goose in Nashville, that led us to new connections (and more importantly friends) in Redding. By Stan choosing to trade bunks with the Irish guy at the hostel in Flagstaff, that led us to hooking up with our 2 German friends and having a place to camp the following night at the Grand Canyon. I don't mean to imply that we choose to walk in love in anticipation of receiving some sort of karmatic reward, nor can one expect that every single time you hold a door for someone or pay for their gas. But in such a love starved world, when you choose to act in love, it becomes contagious. Love is a doorway to many wonderful and amazing things. But more of my thoughts on love later.

We left our dear new Redding friends this morning and drove 7 hours to Portland, Oregon where we are staying with the wonderfully hospitable Meggie Burke. My 2 favorite things of this trip: meeting new friends, and getting to see all our old ones. I like people. :)

Who knows what tomorrow holds, but I know that it will involve coffee shops, acts of love, and rainy Portland, which is good enough for me!

P.S. In Redding, we kept seeing these weird lizard/snake things.

Thanks to 2 seconds of google research I found out they're called Southern Alligator Lizards. Ginger saw one (and snapped the photo above) and I saw one (almost ran it over with my longboard). Their tails can sometimes be up to twice the length of their bodies, which appeared to be the case with the one I saw. Pretty crazy. Here's a couple google images for your viewing pleasure:

Cheers! Jason :)