One love refers to the universal love and respect expressed by all people for all people, regardless of race, creed, or color. —The Urban Dictionary
Anne McCarthy writes: “I realized that the universe is constantly whispering words of love: expressions of pure joy, respect, loyalty, and sacrifice for someone other than ourselves, and instructions on letting go and focusing on what is most important in this world”.
Her remark could not be more poignant today as we face an opportunity to either open the doors and embrace others different from ourselves or build a wall and shut the door. We are at a critical time in history in which more and more democracies including our own are struggling to keep intolerance, injustice and hate out of becoming who we are. With the rise of politicians and people breeding hatred and intolerance of others based on gender, religion, sex and ethnicity, it frightens me. I wonder what kind of world my children will live in. One of ignorance and hate or one of acceptance and love. It is a scary time in history.
Without getting too political or depressing, I wanted to share with you what my belief is in “one love”. Why I believe that we should open our doors to others instead of turn away. The world is an amazing place and a huge part of what makes it so incredibly magical is us. All of us. Not just the white, catholic christians. Everyone. Black, brown, yellow, white. Jewish, Muslim. Christian, Buddhist or atheist. All of us.
That is what one love means.
Me and Mary
Of course I couldn’t resist getting my picture taken with these lovely girls.
Holding a small child at the Kilimanjaro Orphanage Centre in Moshi, Tanzania.
In Ethiopia at Mosebo Village. June 2014
Our multi-cultural team to Haiti. How I wish these lovely ladies all lived here!
Eugenia, our cook, inside the “kitchen” tent gives us a big smile.
Hair Braiding in Havana
Maria. Guatemala.
Volunteering in Morocco, I get Henna done.
Volunteering in Costa Rica
Smiling at her Polaroid of herself.
I bought this small painting for my home.
This post was inspired by the Weekly Photo Challenge: One Love.
Wonderful!
Thanks Leya!
Ah Nicole, one love, one world, one humanity, if only we could all think like this, especially those with the power to make positive change. Beautiful photos of what truly matters.
Thanks Miriam! I was inspired to write this post given all the political rhetoric right now in our country. Politics is so incredibly touchy so I didn’t want to delve into it. I just wanted to hint at the kind of leader I see for our country. One of love, tolerance and acceptance, not hate. Scary scary times. And the rise of Le Pen in France too. Scary.
Yes Nicole, I knew what you were alluding to and I agree, scary, scary times.
I tell you, sometimes I do wish I could pick up and leave. You know there is this great book called “Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”. Have you heard of it? The boy always says when things go wrong that he is going to move to Australia. I’m wishing I could!
I don’t think I’ve heard of that book Nicole. Life is not perfect over here either, by any means, though I like to think we live in a lucky country, certainly luckier than many. I count my blessings every day.
I knew this would be a theme to bring out some of your very best portraits of lovely humans!
Thanks so much! 🙂 I got a bit emotional over this one!
One of my favorite quotes is compassion is a great responsibility. Not everyone can handle compassion.
Thank you for the lovely quote and comment. Yes so true.
Marvelous photomontage of your experiences and with much feeling.
Thanks Sally. I’m a bleeding heart and will forever be. I feel so blessed to have met these people and see how similar we truly are all.
So much love! Beautiful words and photos.
Thanks Cathy! I view humanity and love as part of travel. It is a strong part of experiencing the world.
Beautiful photos. Seeing all those smiling faces made me smile as well. 🙂
Thank you Celia! These photos are very special to me. They remind me of the people I’ve met and who I advocate for. They keep me going.
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Great collection of photographs.
Thank you so much!
It seems so hard to achieve, Nicole. Who can resist those kids? All kids are full of love. What happens to it when we grow up and the world creeps in?
Yes so true Jo. There is an innocence that is lost forever isn’t there. We are at scary times especially here in the US. The rise of intolerance and hate just makes my stomach churn. What is wrong with people?
So very special photo collections/selections. Thank you for sharing, Nicole!
Thanks Amy! 🙂 I couldn’t resist!
I knew you’d have a gallery of faces and you did. Just great. Even though voting is a privilege I cherish and exercise, I hate election years precisely because the intolerance on both sides (or all sides) comes to the fore. Agreeing to disagree and civil discussion all too often go out the door, no matter the party, race, creed, religion, gender, etc. It’s not just in the US that these things occur, but all over the world. It’s frightening when we can’t say we disagree with this policy or that idea, but instead have to mock the person with the policy/idea or savage their family/looks/whatever. It’s even worse when people are driven to kill based on that same disagreement.
janet
Yes Janet! So incredibly true. Intolerance is happening everywhere not just here and yes, it is frightening that you can’t even bring up the conversation anymore because it always leads to such a heated debate. I just talk about it with my husband and very close friends because I’ve realized it just isn’t even worth it. Sad that we live in such a reality. We are a free country and I believe we should be able to speak our beliefs and I believe strongly that we should respect others beliefs even if different than our own. One belief I won’t accept though is hate and intolerance which sadly is happening on both sides right now. It makes my stomach cringe! But you are right, in other countries you are killed for your beliefs so at least we can have ours as our own.
Nobody does it better Nicole – this one was right up your alley. So much joy – and much of it yours!!! beautifully done.
Oh thank you Tina! Sometimes I’m over the top but I appreciate your kind words! 🙂