May Love Rescue Us All

Hi friends,

I recently heard of the Playing For Change project through a friend. After listening to the same clip on YouTube over and over for hours, I ordered the CD/DVD set. Let me just say that this is an absolutely beautiful collection of songs and a brilliant concept.

Here is a brief introduction to the concept:

The Inspiration

Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.

SOURCE: http://www.playingforchange.com

You can find more information here: http://www.playingforchange.com/journey/introduction

As many of you know, I often talk about love. This world often seems so devoid of it. How much could we change the world if we truly loved one another as we are loved? If we celebrated our connections rather than our differences? It may be cliche, but love truly does build bridges.

In my community, there are children and young adults dying daily simply because they believe they have no worth. Broken homes, poverty, crime, and unemployment surround them. These souls turn, in some instances, to gangs for a sense of family, prostitution for "love", and stealing or begging for food.

An entire generation is being lost. We're losing our children.

Unfortunately, we do the same to our elders when we show them through our actions that they are used up and have nothing left to offer. I can't tell you how many times I sat bored through the telling of one of my grandfather's stories when I was younger. Now I would give anything just to hear his voice again.

How different things could be if we simply took the time to be truly engaged in caring for one another. Does saying hello, listening to a story we've heard a thousand times before, asking an elder for advice, or showing a child something new and sharing their wonder really take that much time? What about the friend we haven't called in weeks or months?


That we should all be rescued by love, live in one love, and have someone to stand by us is my most fervent wish.

What will you do to show your love today? Not just for those in your inner circle, but for those in your neighborhood, your community, or for a stranger.

I can't wait to hear your stories.

Love and the Joy of Hurting

I know that many of you will visit the graves of your loved ones this weekend. For some of you, that loss of a loved one is fresh and for still others, that loss is a scar of memory upon your heart. Whichever situation is true for you, the truth is that pain=love. To further illustrate the point I'm attempting (not so eloquently) to make, please read on:

"Love and the joy of hurting"

By Bob Perks

"Do you like what you do?" she asked me.

"I write about happy things," I said.

"Wait a minute. I've read your work. You made me cry sometimes," she said.

"That makes me happy," I replied.

"Well, that's sick," she said smiling.

"I don't make people cry by hurting them. They often cry from the hurt they have already.

When I first started writing, people would reply telling me that they cried. I wrote back every

time to apologize until I one day realized what a privilege it was."

She still looked at me oddly.

"You see, something I was inspired to write touched someone in such a way as to draw from

them an emotion. They, the reader, actually permitted me, trusted me to enter into their very

being that day and release the pain or joy associated with my story."

"So, I let you in?"

"No, God did. He used that moment to connect us. There was something you needed to feel and

something He wanted me to say."

"Then why do we hurt so much?"

"Love."

How much we hurt is often in relationship to how much we love. The same can be said about

happiness. How much happiness there is in our lives depends on how much love we have not

only for those around us, but for life itself.

Like the death of a loved one.

Such loss is a pain we all endure many times in our lives. Why? Because we love.

But the great thing about love is, it never ceases, even after the final goodbye.

Love continues. It does not cease to exist because someone has died. I believe it is not

the memory of someone gone, but the love of someone that sustains us. Love is more than

remembering.

Love is first a decision of the mind and then a commitment of the heart.

A few years ago, someone wrote to me asking "When will I stop hurting?"

At that time there seemed to be a number of people who were struggling with loss.

I have recently become aware that some of my "friends I've never met," are hurting.

Permit me to share that story with you again:

When will I stop hurting?

By Bob Perks

"I lost a loved one nearly a year ago. When will I stop hurting?"

The question was simple but difficult to answer. She was challenging me.

I wanted to help her, but I knew that only she could answer that question.

Whenever someone writes to tell me about a death, I always talk about

the difficult months ahead. I refer to it as a "Year of Firsts." The first holiday,

birthday, anniversary, summer picnic or other personal event without that loved one.

Then there are those little things you never really paid attention to before, but now

find a gaping hole right in the middle of your day. Like the time they woke up each

morning, how they had their coffee, the sound the door made around dinner time

when they arrived home and the way they said "hello."

But there was something about this message today that made me stop and really

think about what I needed to say. Oddly, I decided that the pain she was feeling

was a good thing, but I wasn't sure she wanted to know that.

Here is exactly what I wrote to her:

When will you stop hurting? That is a measure of the love you shared and how does one measure love?

By remembering them long after they are gone. "Memories" are

the shadows of a life well lived that remain long after the light of their being has gone out.

May you never forget. "Pain" is the echo of remembering those special moments when all the world belonged to the both of you.

The day will come when the pain of remembering turns into understanding

the privilege of ever having them in your life at all.

Remembering will be a joy. Although the pain is great at times, you are reminded still, how very much you loved and were loved.

May the rest of your life be a reflection of that love and when your time comes, may your passing cast long shadows for all who loved you, too.

Bob Perks

My final thought...

When I die...

Bury me not in a cold dark grave. Bury me deep within your heart. I will live forever there.

Bob Perks

P.O. Box 1702

Shavertown, Pa. 18708

Contact Bob 2believe@comcast.net

I encourage you to share my stories but
I do ask that you keep my name and contact
information with my work.

If you would like to receive Bob's Inspirational
stories, please visit http://www.IWishYouEnough.com

and submit your email address.

"I Wish You enough!"
© 2001 Bob Perks

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear
much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Goodbye."

Why Do We Wait?

Good morning friends,

As some of you know I lost a couple of beloved friends last week. They will be sorely missed and I am so glad I had their love for even a short time. Yes, I do know that my blog postings have had a theme as of late but there is a reason: I believe that we don't love enough. We don't express it enough, we don't believe in it enough, we don't share it enough. So after these latest tragedies and nearly losing my furbaby this weekend after she ingested some plastic, I have some thoughts on love.

After yet another tragic event, I'm left with many questions. What would motivate someone to cold-heartedly pull the trigger dozens of times and take the lives of so many people? How could something so awful happen, and what can we do prevent it from occurring again? Where can our children go and be safe? Why did God allow this to happen? Where was He? During the aftermath, psychiatrists, law enforcement officials, clergymen, and a slew of others will try to answer these questions.

I also have some of these same questions, but there is one that troubles me every time a Virginia Tech or Columbine or tsunami or 9-11 knocks me off my seat of complacency. "Why does it take a tragedy for people to realize who and what is really important in life?" Why must people die senselessly for us to stop our busy lives, to embrace those we love a little bit longer, to tell someone from the depths of our hearts we love them, or to realize when it is all said and done, love will be all that really matters?

In the midst of the turmoil we embrace what matters and hold on as tight as we can. Clinging to our loved ones, we vow never to let go. We make promises that we will never take our loved ones and life for granted ever again. But, we do. As the dust settles, violent waters recede, airlines fly once again, and classes resume, we move on and let our busy schedules and daily to-do lists take top priority in our lives. What about love? Yes, we still love, but only when we have time or when it is an item to be checked off on our schedule.

A tragedy strikes.

We love deeply.

Life moves onward, or should I say backward, toward the chaotic schedules we try to maintain. Our senses are awakened, but as quickly they are deadened to the pain in the world around us. Yes, one could go crazy focusing on all the evil and injustices in this world. With so much starvation, suffering, and senseless death, it is much easier to live in a cocoon of complacency than to break free from the comfortable chaos we call life.

"What could I possibly do," we ask, "to make a difference in a world that seems to be going to hell in the proverbial hand basket?" (Actually I believe the basket has grown considerably since this saying came about.) Life will offer us an endless cycle of tragic events, and no, most of them we cannot do anything about. Tsunami warning systems will save some but not all. Metal detectors in schools keep some violence from within the buildings, but they do not erase it from beyond the confines of the walls of the classroom.

In the aftermath of tragedy lies our answer. Love. Not just from being caught up in the emotions of the moment, but love at all times. We treat love as a feeling, but ultimately it is a choice, a decision we make. We can choose to love or not to love. The decision is ours to make. It is in our hands. No one can force us to love. To love only when it is convenient is not love.

Love will not keep all the disasters of this world at bay. Love will, however, keep us from fearing what we ultimately fear: death. When all is said and done, when death rears its ugly head, nothing about life will be regretted if we have lived a life of self-sacrificing love. We will not live in the "what ifs," and "if onlys." Jesus commanded, and did not merely suggest, we "love one another as I have loved you." This is a love that takes its last breath loving. We waste so much of our time not loving, but when we look back upon our lives all that will have mattered is, "did we love with an inexhaustible love?" Love never counts the cost but always says, "no greater love is there than this, than for a man to give up his life for his friends."

Love is Liviu Librescu. A Jewish holocaust survivor, he blocked his classroom door and told his students to jump out the windows while the gunman at Virginia Tech tried to enter and continue his murderous rampage. He took his last breath loving.

There will be many "who, what, when, where, why, and how" questions that can never be answered whenever any tragic event takes place. But only you can answer for yourself the question: "Why does it take a tragedy for us to realize who and what is really important in life?" Why do we "wait" to love?

Everything is always okay in the end, if it's not okay, then it's not the end.