A couple of years ago I was having a terrible day. It felt like everything I touched turned into another problem threatening to grow bigger. I was caught in a state of miserable making miserable until I happened to bump into a friend I hadn’t seen for sometime. She greeted me by saying, “Hello beautiful.” A strange thing happened to me when I heard these words. They didn’t pass over me like, “Hi how are you.” would have done. No, these words stuck to me and followed me for the rest of the day. It was magical, my day turned around and I saw my own beauty reflected in her greeting. The power of this simple acknowledgment so touched me, that I started to greet people in the same way, “hello beautiful or hello gorgeous.” The results were amazing. I can’t say for certain how it impacts others, but it reminds me of the beauty and gifts that the people are in my life, and yes, sometimes just passing them on the street brings to the daily feast.
I have another friend who likes to ask, “How many times have you fallen in love today?” When I think about this question that’s meant to be provocative, I realize all of these greetings and questions are but spins on greetings people have been using since the beginning of time. After all shalom, or peace be with you, or even namaste, are but variations each acknowledging that special spark existent in all people.
What is new, is the Hello Love Project, and their determination to turn people’s attention back to the real feeling behind these greetings. Hello Love, a group originally formed in Los Angeles with the mission to, “greet one another first and foremost with love,” is taking on a great experiment in universal love, putting it out into the world, bouncing it around and proposing to bring it to a level of mass consciousness. They have been gathering rain or shine during the last year to greet often disembodied Los Angeles drivers from street corners with smiles and “Hello Love” signs. I was privileged to join them one day last October. I found it interesting that people in the passing cars so often seemed shocked to the point of looking back behind, and then back at us with a, “Who me? You really mean me?” expression, which would then often melt into smiles. Isn’t this what we all crave and long for; to be seen and appreciated, to be reminded of love in its many forms? I think so.
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