These girls are my kind of gang. Wyld Life is my kind of thing. Campaigners is my kind of night.
Tonight we watched The Gnomist together. It's a story about 3 different families and a magical Firefly Forest where little homes begin popping up overnight. It's a story about pain and tragedy. It's a story about compassion for strangers. It's a story about finding hope. It's a story about believing that life is beautiful and creating your own magic.
It's the most beautiful act of compassion that a stranger would notice our pain and do something about it.
In the beginning we did it for us. But once we saw the happiness it brought, we were hooked. Once you see that, once you're part of that, you want to do more.
We love you, we'll lift you, you'll find your way.
We talked about how these small acts of love made a huge impact. In 1 Thessalonians 3 it says, "May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people." Sometimes pain is a way our love increases, sometimes our love takes away other people's pain. Often, we finding healing, hope and love in community.
Tonight I sat in a circle with Payton, Sydney, Jayla, Mallory, Ellison, Marcella, Sarah, Olivia, Chloe and Caroline. They range from 7th grade to Junior year. We talked about the video, shared stories of pain in our lives right now and encouraged one another with where we've found hope in similar situations. Just witnessing these stories is a gift.
Each group came up with a list of the things that give them hope. Conveniently, after my group finished, Maddie came downstairs. "Dance parties" was one of the things on our list so Maddie turned on the music through the speakers. Soon all of the other groups had joined us for a spontaneous dance party to end the night.
KCraig put some of what Wyld Life kids said on Instagram tonight...
My list of things that bring me hope:
friends coming out of hard things
handwritten notes
dance parties
little kids playing
Wyld Life girls
cool people making cool things
real talks
friends praying for me
surprises of great love
stories of forgiveness
sunrises
laughing till we cry
What gives you hope?
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