Karma Kitchen in Berkeley, CA and Washington DC operates on a gift economy as well. What do you think about these unique restaurants? How does it make you feel to watch this video? I’ll tell you how it makes me feel. Warm + fuzzy.

“Mirror in the sky, what is love?” This is! These kids, this teacher, the moving with the music, and finally, the way they move others. And me to tears. Every single time! Amazing. Beautiful. Thank you PS22 for existing and putting so much more love in the world than existed before you opened your mouths and sang!

This sure is a message for this particular time and place, isn’t it? Well, the chorus anyway. Not the whole lovers on the boulevard thing. Anyway, I wanted to share the cutest 5th graders in the world with you and then I started to ponder how believin’, as it were, and Lovemore are related. Angela and I have talked a lot over the past year about how there are simply more challenges for almost everyone these days. And like everyone else, we get all caught up in the panic from time to time when we momentarily do stop believing. Oh do we ever. Usually around midnight, speaking our fears and letting the tears roll on a park bench in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

That said, we’re so thankful that we now have a spiritual home to return to in the mantra “love more.” Our belief that choosing love more is the answer to any and every question invariably grabs us by our shoulders, stops our spinning, and maneuvers us around until we are again pointed in the right direction. And from that perspective we see that there is an amazing gift in these difficult times. In the midst of a stressed out world, we as individuals can choose to grow our hearts big enough to hold this new level of challenge in love. We have the opportunity (perhaps unwelcome, but an opportunity nonetheless) to love*uncertainty*more, love*change*more, and love*vulnerability*more. As we practice bringing love instead of fear to what is tender, everything starts to shift and, well, we are 99.99% sure that is what will change the whole game. And that, we will never stop believin.

First things first. How pretty is he? And did you fall instantly in love? Or did it take a second? For the couple who rescued this kitty, and for me, it was instant. The photo alone totally tugged at my heart strings, and then there was more. The artist who took this photo shared the amazing love story behind the image. I’m reprinting the artist’s comments below, and if you click on the kitten pic you will be taken to the original where you should definitely leave a comment if you’re so moved. Thank you Casey for the awesome love you’ve shared with Odin and with us by telling your story. It makes a difference in the world!

Artist’s Comments

Odin is an amazingly special cat. Named for the one-eyed God of Thunder, Odin has a journey of a story which I feel compelled to share with those of you who are interested to listen.         

Odin had a hard life at the beginning, born to an abusive, neglectful family, he was an outside cat who got more than his share of beatings from both animals and people nearby. Scars are apparent on his ears, and especially his nose, of past battles. However, Odin wasn’t brought into the shelter until his eye was shot out with a pellet gun, possibly by his previous owner or a neighborhood kid. 

The shelter removed the pellet, but unfortunately his eye was lost. Our shelter isn’t innocent in some of the pain caused to him, however. The shelter obviously placed no trust in the fact that he would make it, because his eye wasn’t properly sewn, and they left in his right tooth, which was fractured from the impact, to abscess.

I saw images of Odin (called “Winky” by the shelter) on their website, and something about him pulled me. I begged my husband, who at the time didn’t want another cat, to at least let me go and take a look at him. He was about a year old at the time and still had the stitches in his eye when he was brought out to us. The woman handed him to my husband and he laid his head against my husband’s chest.

Call it love at first sight, the next day we were taking him home. He was clearly hanging on. A strong cat, he pulled through another surgery to remove the abscessed tooth and we discovered through the vet that his blood work returned with his blood sugar through the roof, meaning that not only was he suffering from his ordeal, he was diabetic. 

My husband worried for ages that he wouldn’t make it, but I kept hoping, kept praying. I applied medicine to his eye to help it heal and kept a close watch on the spot where his tooth was. 

Now nearly a year later, he’s gained to a healthy weight, his eye has healed marvelously, and his blood sugar is still maintained through insulin shots. He’s well behaved, never once fighting me while giving him shots. He sleeps on my legs at night, and purrs nearly every time I touch him. I believe that love, more than anything, kept us going, and has allowed him to be this part of my life. 

Even after everything he’s been through, he’s still beautiful in my eyes. Some may cringe, but I look at him and see an angel. {Editor’s note: us too!}

Edit 5.10.2009: Thank you all so very much for all the sweet and heartwarming comments! I can’t possibly reply to all of them, but I greatly appreciate everything said, and I have taken time to read every single one. Odin thanks you too, I’m sure. You’ve all been so sweet and accepting; and I feel I just can not express my gratitude in words!

Ankit describes himself as, “A kid that cares for little more than open minds, strong opinions, passion, genuinity, a good laugh and conscious living for the people and the world around me.” Right on! Today he blogged about doing random acts of kindness in Central Park. We LOVE that, and we love*Ankit*more. This is just the kind of thing that inspires us over here at Lovemore. His post is below, or you an click the link to read it on his blog. Thank you Ankit for the love you put in the world, it’s awesome!

From Ankit’s blog: Fail With Purpose

So here is mine. This picture is of Angela and me in Tulum, Mexico in 2007, I believe. Shiny. Hot. Completely happy. For me Tulum is really a riff on the hippie girl road trip. It is a very sacred place, and holds sacred connections for me. I’ve been 4 times and hope to return soon. I became a Reiki master there, swam naked in the ocean for the first time (I said hippie!), celebrated my graduation from nursing school, and visited with Angela, which is always soulful, twice. There is truly a magic in the air and water in Tulum that is indescribable, and I’m pretty sure the feeling of pure love. A funny thing I’m just now realizing…I may not have adopted Tulum as one of my soul vacation spots if it weren’t for Suryo, one of the teachers I reference in #3. Oh how everything is connected. So with that I hope you’ll get connected too! 
 

Now it’s your turn. Add your list of 3 as a comment, or if you want to do a picture (which is super fun, you should totally do it!) you can email it to ilovemore@chooselovemore.com and we’ll collect and post them. And do check out Soul Pancake too…lots of great inspiration over there.

Fun fact: Rainn Wilson (most notably from The Office) is the genius behind Soul Pancake. How awesome is that? A spiritual quote he tweeted a few months ago caught my eye, so I’m not really surprised. Love it!

When Angela and I first started Lovemore we talked about the pressure of being the “Lovemore girls,” and “oh-my-god, what about how we’re oh-so-human and there are times when we don’t love more?” We wondered if it was appropriate to lead this love more movement when it is something that as committed as we are, we certainly haven’t mastered. We decided that the truth of the matter is that choosing love more is all about practice, not perfection, and that therein lies a life-enriching process, versus an unattainable dogma.

It is in fact my and Angela’s personal practice of choosing love more that gave rise to the Lovemore you see today. Our first batch of t-shirts bearing the love more mantra were created simply to remind ourselves to choose love more, because even though we knew that doing so was the best way to bring more peace, love, and joy into any moment, we didn’t always do it. The positive reaction to our message showed us that we were in good company. So we created Lovemore’s line of love-infused products to support individuals in their practice, inspire each other as we form a community, and to watch how the world changes as the amount of love in it increases.

I was inspired to share this part of our Lovemore story by Jason’s opening up about what he calls his humanness, and for that I’m grateful. When we share the ways that we are still growing, we help those around us embrace their practice as well. And that’s a beautiful thing. 

Excerpts from Freshness Factor Five Thousand, blog of Jason Mraz

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009

I’m writing this because it’s important for you to know that I am still very human and have been very afraid to admit certain truths and take on the many responsibilities that surround them. I am afraid of success just as much as I am afraid of failing. I have fears about how I’ll look in the eyes of my peers, my family, or my fans. And up until now I’ve had fears about sharing this information.

I’ve been praised a thousand times for my positive outlook and my positive contributions to music. And I’ve celebrated loudly and advertised myself as someone with an attitude of gratitude. But all it seems to take is one small moment of negativity, inadequacy, or fear, to break me from my most powerful nature, that of being the possibility of real love. So the failure I would create in THAT would reduce me again to feeling like just a worthless soul whose life will be over before it began so what’s the point in even trying.

Huh? All this is coming from the positive thinking guy? Is this the same cat who wrote I’m Yours – a song in which every stanza is about generosity, encouragement, and letting go?

…Tonight, I’m appearing on American Idol, singing I’m Yours with a handful of contestants from this past season and for the first time I’m actually celebrating my own success. Even though I dreamed of having this life, I’ve been too afraid that people will find me egotistic if I actually show how much fun I have doing it. Even that SNL appearance in January was this fond-of-hats-fellow at 50% due to the worry about how it was going to translate on TV.

So I invite you to watch and share with me the joy I truly have in doing what I do. I’ll be singing I’m Yours tonight as if it’s the first time I’ve ever sung it. I’ll also be wearing a t-shirt designed by my good friend, Jon Marro at Blend Apparel. The design of the shirt asks the question, What it is going to take to have peace? For me, honesty and open communication are the keys to freedom. And freedom from yourself gives you the greatest peace: Peace of mind. 

* I discovered Jason’s post via Ankit Shah, a Tumblr friend who is 17 and wise beyond his years. The amazing people Lovemore brings into my life are just a dream come true, let me tell you.

Any thoughts? Please share them!

{Thank you to our friends at Shining Shakti for reminding me of this great video!}

I know, one thing, that I love you

I love you, I love you, I love you

Click the header to see the video!

{Thanks Eco-chick for bringing this video into my day today, and thank you vegan peace activist Michael Franti and Spearhead for doing what you do, with so much love!}

Today when Ang and I went out in our neighborhood to grab lunch I thought it might be fun to share some pics of what life looks like around the Lovemore “office.” I uploaded my snaps from the afternoon to our flickr stream here: Lovemore Brooklyn Headquarters set on flickr.

Both Angela and I love calling Brooklyn home, and couldn’t be more proud to have Lovemore headquartered here. We’re so excited to be a new business in this historic community and look forward to getting connected to all the BK has to offer our mission of love. We also plan on giving back to our new home, so if you have a favorite Brooklyn-based charity that you think embodies the Lovemore mission drop us a line and let us know about it! Send an email to: hello@chooselovemore.com.