Hope Unites Globally-HUG Award

I have been awarded the Hope Unites Globally – HUG Award by kianys at Thirty Years of Growing Pain(s).  I spoke of this young lady in  The Long Overdue Post but I have more to say before I speak of the award.  If I’d gotten this award from anyone else, I would have given it to her because she gives me hope.  She’s a young woman who lost her mother when she was two years old.  She speaks honestly about her life.  I don’t know her whole story but I know she is kind and compassionate.  She would make any mother proud.

The day before kianys awarded my the HUG award, I’d written on a piece of paper, “I need to make a difference.”  I believe this award gives me this chance.  I  spent the first half of my life focused on me, me, me.  I spent the second part of my life focused on my children.  As kianys says in one of her post, the mother becomes the frame and the children the picture.  I think most mothers would agree.

I hope to spend the next part of my life embracing the idea that we’re all connected.  Usually we make our connections through blood or proximity.  I’ve failed at many connections and I haven’t tried hard enough to maintain others.  I hope to work harder in the future.

I’ve made some great connections through this blog.  It’s been exciting but now kianys gave me this award and, at least today, I want to connect through my blog on a different level.

Free Hug (Photo credit: Extra Medium)

The HUG award was initiated by Connie Wayne to promote hope, love, peace, equality and unity for all people.    I want to recognize two people whom I feel deserve this award.

The two people are from my small community.  Since I haven’t told them of this award, I won’t use their last name.  This couple, Mark and Karen, had a simple idea.  They decided it would be nice to offer a free meal, once a month, to anyone in our community.  It started small but has grown.  Many of the members of our church prepare vegetables, casseroles, breads and desserts.  Somebody goes to the Salvation Army and the Good Samaritan offices and hands out flyers.  We hold the meal at our church but the meal is not about growing our membership.  The meal is about kindness.  Karen and Mark are about kindness. We just feed people-no pressure, just love.  We connect with the people and honestly, we’re better for it.  I have met some fascinating people in my community whom I would never have met if it wasn’t for Mark and Karen. They had an idea and they made it work.  Thanks, Mark and Karen, for providing this opportunity to connect with others.

Image via Wikipedia

One last thing I would like to do is share a documentary about connecting.  The director is  Tom Shadyac.  I’m sure many of you are already familiar with him or his work.  Tom Shadyac is the director of movies like “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”,  “The Nutty Professor”, and “Bruce Almighty”. After an accident he decided to simplify his life and live in the best possible way.  He, being a director, made a film about his journey.  In the documentary, he speaks with people making significant strides in bettering our world.   His film is, “I Am, The Documentary“.    It’s really worth a look.  I don’t get anything for promoting his film but I’m hoping for a little feather in my angel wings for each viewing because of this post and, trust me, I need all the feathers I can get.

Kianys, thanks again.  The nice thing about this award is that once you get it, you can give it to anyone at anytime.  I want to spend the next year getting to know others better through their blogs.  I want to connect with others and learn how they feel about the world.  I’ll continue to blog about the humor in my mundane life in posts dealing with things like  jury duty and the empty-nest of a crazy lady but, watch out, I may have started something.  Maybe, every once in a while, I’ll use this blog to ‘make a difference’.