You Only Go Once (Y.O.G.O.)
Cheryl and Eileen explore different topics around the limited time we have on this earth to create a fully layered life. Because...You Only Go Once!
You Only Go Once (Y.O.G.O.)
From Pain to Purpose: Heather Devine's Vision of People Spread Love
We promise you a compelling journey, told through the voice of our guest, the inspiring Heather Devine, who took a tragic event and turned it into a beacon of hope and love. Heather, a mom, wife, business owner, and the guiding light behind People Spread Love, narrates her transformative journey from a self-serving life to one dedicated to spreading love and compassion. She takes us back to the summer of 2015 when, driven by a heart-wrenching event, she started a project with her community that continues to invite people to show empathy and compassion, years later.
Heather's story isn't just about love for others; it's also about self-love. You'll find out how Heather navigated her spiritual awakening and wrestled with self-doubt, all while maintaining a firm belief in the power of love and connection. She talks about finding purpose that goes beyond the transactional aspects of life, and the importance of recognizing our unique strengths. She also touches upon the limitations of the education system and the significance of using our imagination as adults to find deeper meaning in our lives.
In the final moments of the episode, Heather ponders the future of People Spread Love. She shares critical reflections on her journey of self-discovery, the importance of recognizing our uniqueness, and her insights into the future of her organization. She also emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries for herself and finding moments to just sit and be present. Join us on this journey with Heather, as she inspires us to lead a life filled with love, empathy, and compassion.
Hi, I'm Heather Devine. I hope when you look back on your life you see, because you only go once.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello. I am here with my lovely co-host, eileen Grimes, and this is you. Only Go Once. Today we're here with a wonderful guest, eileen, kick us off.
Speaker 3:Thanks, cheryl. So today we have Heather Devine, who wears many hats in her nearly 40th trip around the sun. She's a mom, a daughter, a friend, a wife, a business owner, an executive director of People Spread Love and an eternal optimist of humanity. I can say that Heather has been someone in my life I'm adding to your bio here but has been someone in my life that, though we met on an app in an auditory only way, has inspired me to keep doing things that spread love and kindness and connection, and I've just been so amazed by the work that she does and just the human that she is, and it was one of the first things I wanted to do was, once we started this podcast, to bring Heather on. I am so, so glad to have you here today, my friend Heather. Welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me. This was great.
Speaker 3:So we've got a busy night. We were just talking about moming. I'm running behind. I was just getting back from first soccer practice ever for my daughter, so we ran a few minutes behind the shoes having a great time. So that's that, and we'll be making this work and that's what we do. So it's always a balance of things and sometimes one thing balances more than the other. So, heather gosh, I don't even know where do I want to kick us off. I would love for you to talk about. Let's just talk about people spread love first, because I think that there's so much there and where that got started and what it is. That kind of also leads into who you are as a person. So can you share with us what? What people spread love is how it started and sort of where it's going now? Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, oh gosh, I'll start from the beginning in the summer of 2015.
Speaker 1:I remember sitting in my car, sobbing, listening to NPR, when I heard the news that a white supremacist attended a Bible study at African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, south Carolina.
Speaker 1:The man shot and killed nine black people with a lethal weapon.
Speaker 1:I just remember sobbing in my car and asking the world why would somebody do something like this? Why is there some hate in the world? How can this possibly be something that somebody would feel like they needed to take someone's life, let alone nine people that were there in a very heart centered way in a church praising God? So to me, that just felt like absolute agony, just emphasizing even though these people I don't know any of them, I didn't know those that are lost, but even though we were thousands of miles away, I felt pain, I felt compassion and I felt that community suffering and that really significant loss that it felt so palpable. It felt like it was my family and so I felt it is pulling, because I was already in the parking lot of the grocery stores, I was going to go pick up groceries for me and my soon to be husband and I was drawn to, quite literally was drawn to because I felt like a tug on my shirt to go to the greeting card section of the grocery store.
Speaker 1:And I remember this was pre-kid, so I remember having a lot of time on my hands and I stood in front of the greeting card section and pulled greeting cards that were filled with compassion and love and were centered around Christianity, because this is the tap in a Christian church and I felt really called to really hold space in my heart for people that I don't know and just letting the congregation know that somebody far away that doesn't know them cares really deeply for their loss. So as I was driving home that night, I was called. I felt like you know of this correction came through because I was like, okay, me and my fiance can sign these. And then I was immediately corrected like no, you need to ask the whole community to sign them. And as soon as I contacted everybody that I knew in the Valley both colleagues, friends, volunteers I got an immediate yes response from every single person that I contacted they would meet me publicly, they would go to my place of business, they'd go to my home, they would sign these cards, fill them with love and compassion and just with all this heart, letting them know they're not alone.
Speaker 1:And at that moment I realized there was something there, and so I filled the box. It was a medium sized box and in the return address portion I wrote People Spread Love. I didn't think about it, it just kind of flew, it kind of flowed through me. It was as if like, okay, this is what I need to do right now, like this is my purpose, which is one of my many hats that I'll wear on this earth.
Speaker 1:And I don't know if it's going to go beyond this moment. But lo and behold, it's been eight years and the moment of compassion and empathy that we need to share with each other, reminding each other we're not alone, has not changed. And that was the moment when People Spread Love was born. And I feel really humbled for the opportunity to be able to share that with both of you today, because, even though it's been eight years, it still feels really fresh. It still feels really new because, based on the name of this project and the whole soul of the project is to serve the community and for people to Spread Love it's an invitation for people in the community to step up and show compassion and empathy for others.
Speaker 3:And it's I mean. I mean, well, you have to go to the website. There are so many different opportunities for people, for anyone who wants to take part in this. You can be anywhere and do this work. You can be an ambassador of love which I love the name of that too and or if there's someone that you know that could use love in whatever way, shape or form, that is, wherever they are in the time of their lives that they could just use an extra, you know someone reaching out to say I see you, you exist, you matter. It's just such a beautiful, beautiful program that you have now and this is now a nonprofit organization too.
Speaker 3:From everything that that came from from that really, really deep place, I think one of the things that really touched me too, from this, from your story and just hearing this, is that you know, I think some of us sometimes get caught in that trap of I just experienced something very, very deeply and it was very difficult, and you know this is, I understand there are traumatic responses for different things and you then took the next step to say, well, what can I do? What can I? How can I? How can I move the needle, how can I start, even if it's one small thing, even if it's a greeting card right, it's one small thing, it's one small step, and I just think that taking that next step to say I have the ability to do something that opposes what this was to try to make this world a better place is such an incredible thought and idea. It is a revolutionary idea. Right To take a step against that and to bring back everything with love. So I just, every time I hear your story, it just gives me goosebumps and I know how much it means to you.
Speaker 3:And what this organization does, you know, is that. Have you always been like that? Have you always done things where it's like I can't just stop and sit in this, I need to move forward, or is that something that you've learned over time? To take action when action is needed?
Speaker 1:I think that's a really great question and the answer is no. When I was a lot younger, I lived a pretty selfish life. I think that with our children, typically, we try to instill in them, you know, the philanthropic nature. We want them to donate their time, so, whether that's money or energy, one of the things. Growing up I was a Girl Scout.
Speaker 1:I was very much volunteer savvy. My mom is always having me into programs to like be a good human, you know, and I also feel like I have this like well, how is it gonna benefit me? Like all that questioning came up, like I knew this doesn't feel good thing, but how is this aligned with me and where I need to, how I need to exist in the world. And one of the things that was really pivotal for me was when I was a young adult, probably in my early 20s, and I realized after, you know, going to college and getting out of college and I was working and going home and working and going home and working and going out to happy hour and going out to eat and just spending so much money on just indulging and enjoying my social life. And there's nothing wrong with that. I certainly will never criticize anybody for enjoying their lives, however that looks for them. But I realized something we're like, but I'm not serving anybody right now.
Speaker 1:Like. It felt like it was so self-serving but I was like I need to volunteer my time. And so I started volunteering my time for United Methodist Family Services in Richmond, virginia, when I lived there just prior to meeting my husband in the city, and I remember that, reckoning like I need to offer up my time. It's the most valuable thing that we have, right, this is time and the energy. And so what I would do is, first thing in the morning, few times a week, would volunteer my time to come to an art class and volunteer my time to an art teacher who's since passed away from cancer. She ended up dying from bone cancer and I knew she was diagnosed with cancer and at that time she had breast cancer and she needed extra help. She couldn't lift boxes, she couldn't really help his and the right in that same way, and we were in a really special classroom with children who had autism and they're in different spectrums of autism and they just needed someone to sit there, make art with them and, just like, be joyful and kind to each other, and I could offer that.
Speaker 1:I was in my early twenties and I was like I've got a lot of energy, like, and I love making art, like, and so to me it just was like a no brainer, like, oh yeah, I'm gonna totally help and I'll sit and make art with you guys. You know, and United Methodist Family Services is an organization that takes in children that have been troubled in the home, whether they've been abused or just have some behavioral things that they need extra help with. And this was a place. It was a campus too, so the children lived on campus and so I would go be with the children and make art and just hold faith for them. We would listen to music and talk about movies and we would just like relate to each other. And it felt really natural, like I just wanna be with people, like children are cool, like you know, and it's just, and at that time I bet just felt like a natural progression for me. And so I knew there's like little seeds. I feel like we all have little seeds of like a trail, of like how do you wanna show up in your life, like why don't we sprinkle these experiences in there? And then you can take value where you see fit. And I feel so grateful for that opportunity, I feel, because I'm sure we all go into this too.
Speaker 1:But People. Threadlove has events called meet and makes, where we meet and we make together. So crafting music, writing notes of love together. It's this communal space where we're together. It's not. There's no confrontation, there's no negativity. As a matter of fact, I've been doing this for eight years and when we hold faith together, people even police themselves.
Speaker 1:So if someone starts gossiping about someone, you'll hear some 20-something say oh, we're here to spread love today, like we're out of time for that. You know, it's just like very policing each other gently, like we're here for heart centered work. We're here for heart work, like and I like to use the word heart work Instead of hard work it's heart work. And we're holding faith together and we're being together. And I think that most people in this world find confrontation and divisiveness in their lives and turmoil when they don't feel connection.
Speaker 1:And I feel like our love opens up and again, creates that invitation for people to just show up at the table like come as you are, let's hold space together. And it's like. Maybe it sounds a little too coo-bi-off for some people, but I have seen it work and it works and it's something people are aching for. They want to find meaning, they want to find purpose, like how can I show up? And I still think that volunteer work at the soup kitchen, like volunteer work, if any capacity you can think of, just getting involved with your kids' school, anything that you can think of and how you resonate with like do that thing, like whatever that is, people spread love or also nickname it, coin it, tsl. Tsl resonates so much with me because it's like not only is it something that I've seen grow up like a child, but I've like seen what it can do to like really support community and I feel so deeply passionate about this work because I know that it's it worked yeah.
Speaker 3:How often do you run those events? Are they like a monthly thing, or how often do they happen?
Speaker 1:It's kind of sporadic. Usually the summers we have more events and before I became a mom it was a little bit hard or a little bit easier to coordinate calendars and stuff. But my son absolutely loves going to meet and makes. He helps host with me, he makes sure everyone's taken care of. He's very, he's very nurturing in that way and he loves to make art and you should see him. I should show you some things he made, but I will in a moment. But he makes the most beautiful. Like anytime he makes art, he always incorporates hearts and he goes mommy, you can use this to spread love. He's always collecting love, spreading cards and they're just so kind and loving and you just put some such good, kind energy in it, you can tell he understands this work, he was born to understand it and he resonates so much in it.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and it's so cool too, because I know there's a few things that I've seen. Also with People's Spread Love. There's opportunities to submit drawings for the different cards that you have. So tell us a little bit about you know, if someone does want to join like your starter packs and things like that that people can kind of use to generate ideas that they don't necessarily feel like they're the most creative or things like that there is something that can kind of support them and being able to still take part in this.
Speaker 1:So what we actually started two years now is called the PSL Starter Kit Program, and what we do is we offer 200 kits per year to the community whoever wants to participate in its card making supply. So it's never claims to be an art kit, right, because we're not. You know. It's more important to like ignite curiosity in writing notes of love. It's got directions on how to spread love with People's Spread Love. The other thing, too, is that it's not necessary that you go to our website, although I encourage everyone listening to go to our website at peoplespreadlovecom and click on the who Needs Love and you'll see real time who Needs Love right now. There are people all over the country and the world that need to be poured into for varied circumstances and varied reasons, and so all of them could use some love. So yeah, but what I also want to encourage with PSL is that it's not important that you pour into who Needs Love list. It's on our website. You can pour love into anybody, whether it be your congregation or circle of friends or family. However you want to show up in your community, it is completely up to you. It's really an invitation to make this a habit, because I think the more we make this the norm, where you normalize writing those sublots of people, the kindness and empathy for others will catch on and then people will be like I want to keep doing this, like whatever that looks like, if it's not a note of love, but it's like checking on a friend, make sure they're okay, or you know any number of thing. You can think of donating to the homeless or bringing food, you know, to food pantry, like whatever that looks like.
Speaker 1:It's really about checking on each other because when we think about it, yes, we're a collection of communities. So I'm in a town in Idaho and the border of Idaho and Wyoming we call it Whitehoe, right, and we're in the mountains. So we have a small community here, but not only is PSL in this community, but it spans all over the country, because it's not about just one community, which is where I'm like we spark interest in breaking down those barriers, breaking down those invisible boundaries of what community means, because it's just, it doesn't serve us to to hold those boundaries Right. It's better when we're collectively together and normalizing this part centered stuff. So sorry, I want to do a little tangent there. No, I love it. No, that's okay. So hopefully that makes sense at the start of it. Yeah, definitely yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's wonderful. I think it's also very poignant that we're talking to you on the 22nd anniversary of 9-11, because there's still so much pain that resonates from that event. I know where I was when it happened. I'm sure that there are other people listening to this know exactly where they were. I will also say that that event that you talked about, that triggered everything.
Speaker 2:I remember sitting at my workspace and when they were going through the names of the victims, the one that struck me the most was Cynthia Graham Hurd. She was a branch manager for the Charleston County Public Library System and I don't know why, but to think that a librarian who had given her time and space and love to help people learn and grow was taken away from us in such a senseless act, it really struck me so hard that day and I wish I had known you during that time, because I definitely would have wanted to do something. And I think that's the challenge, right? Is that oftentimes people have. You know, we talk a lot of times, the news focuses on the worst of humanity and I don't think we do enough of looking at the best of humanity, and I think your space in particular looks at the best of humanity and I'm so glad that people spread love exists, because there's a lot of people out there, obviously, that need the love and support, whether it's an individual moment, whether it is, you know, a natural weather catastrophe, whether it's a shooting, whether it's just, you know, people just feeling alone.
Speaker 2:You know, those letters, I can tell you, mean a lot. I love getting snail mail, like, even if it's an email, but I also love, like, that art of the handwritten letter. I just think that that is just an amazing, amazing piece of that. Yeah, I just, you know, thank you so much for creating this organization. If you could look back as you talked about being an empathetic child, but also looking at, like, what's in it for me and things like that, right, if you could go back now and talk to your younger self, like, what advice would you give to her?
Speaker 1:I would tell her a lot, but I think I would give her a really big hug because, you know, a little emotional for a second, because for the longest time I'm still overcoming this as an adult is Then I wasn't smart enough. Mm-hmm, that I was a smart I couldn't possibly like. Just my, my little voice in my head that I've had since I was a little girl was you're not smart enough. You don't retain information the way that other people do. There's something wrong with you. You couldn't possibly rise to the occasion to do anything worthwhile. That was always the chatter in my head, and I know that's all completely BS right now.
Speaker 1:So the reason being is that I Felt something that was so important, a message so clear, and I'm a very spiritual person. I'm not religious, I'm very spiritual like I. I experienced life like I. I just think that there's something bigger than me and I think that we all have a purpose, like we all have something, and perhaps we have several purposes, which is also fine. You know, I think that there's a multitude of things you can do to show up in your life and I think what felt so clear as a bell is that I needed to do something at that moment sitting in my car, and Perhaps that moment has been poking at me prior to that moment, but that moment I stuck. It was something that I just heard loud and clear, and so what I would say to myself is Heather, you are worthy, you are smart, you Are intuitive. Just listen to your, to the messages that are coming through and, yes, there's gonna be sprinkled in doubt, but I also think that's part of the journey.
Speaker 1:I Don't think that I would have heard this message come so clearly. I don't think I would have risen to the occasion of proving other people wrong that I was smart. So I don't know if I would change anything. I think I would. Just Now I can heal. I feel like we still have the opportunity to like, heal and send good energy to our younger selves now you know that we're not younger and just saying like hey, okay, girl, like you got this, like just do you, do you got to do.
Speaker 1:Now I, I am to admit like I'm learning constantly, so there's never a moment where I'm like I finished. Good, you know, cleaning my hands of this life is so exploratory and it's so exciting. There's so much to learn. There's so many people in the universe to know. I mean the fact that I have this incredible human, that I get to share my life with my son. He's all. He's my greatest teacher. He teaches me patience, he teaches me Kindness, he teaches me to just play my goodness like.
Speaker 1:As an adult, you're taught to be so dang serious. I grew up what you want to do for a living Sorry, my dog is biting your Tony. I'll such a weirdo. Um, so if you hear this, okay, oh, my god, that's it. You're freaking me out. I'm sorry, I'm like just drive, it's like a big, like it's so annoying anyway. So my All that being said, is that, like there's an opportunity to do a lot of healing for your younger self and I think that we all have the opportunity to do that. Just, you know, create some understanding and level of self awareness and love and bring it inward. Yeah, I am.
Speaker 3:I'm in this program right now to it's, I'm using it for some of the, you know, internal work and things like that that I'm gonna be able to apply in some of the coaching things that I do and life in general. But it was, it's been beautiful because we've been talking about Wisdom, but wisdom through four different lenses, one being cognitive wisdom, which is what that is traditionally in School, right, that's the stuff that you memorize from the books, that's the stuff that you it's great, like we still need all of those, those things and we learn from science and we learn from History and dates and math and all of those things. And then there's three other lenses. There is the embodiment lens, which is the actual knowing of ourselves, this wisdom of ourselves, and that includes that intuitive nature that we have and and listening to our guts and really Just understanding what that piece means and I. And then there's sacred wisdom, which is knowing of that which has come before us and the things that connect us into the earth and to you know all the world around us. And then there's also the relational Wisdom, which I think is fascinating because that is the connection like it's a lot of what you're doing is the connection between people that that doesn't get taught. You're not, you don't, you don't sit in a classroom and and learn that that is actually just as valuable and just as beneficial. And the world needs those all four of those lenses in order to Survive as a species, in order for us to really exist together and co-create and and make this world what we want it to be.
Speaker 3:We have to have all these pieces, but we, we emphasize very heavily here, especially in sort of the, the US, that cognitive wisdom is like the then then you're smart. If you know that one, then you're smart. And you know I just that's not, for, like, art doesn't come from cognitive smart. You know those, these things that are, these expressions that are so healing for the world when we have them. You know, it's just not as emphasized here, and I'm I want to give your little Heather a hug also and same same, you know, as my little Eileen and all the little, all the little non-cognitive people that have these other expressions that need to be shared. And Anyway, it's just, you know I it's helpful to like have for me having that, that mindset now, an understanding of these different sort of approaches to what wisdom and smarts can be, and You're definitely doing All of those, so I'm grateful that you've kept going.
Speaker 1:And thank you, eileen, that's it's so important to talk these things through, because you know raising a kid, as you know, is you want to, like, make it right, you know, for your little self and then for your kid's self right. You want them to also like, you want to heal through loving them and nurturing them and their strengths. And I think that, and not that we should have all this pressure to be perfect, because that's not what I mean, it's more of like okay, I'm acknowledging that this is something you really resonate in. How can I show up for you? Because my parents did show up for me.
Speaker 1:They really did see that. I learned differently, but they really really did and I think they did the best they could at the time to nurture that, and the public schools only could do so much as far as like nurturing certain parts of ourselves. Education system is limited, as you know, so I think that, like having a support system at home and having people who know you and can support you and your strengths is super important. I know a lot of book smart people. I mean there was one time and I won't name names there's one time I was telling a telling a friend or an acquaintance at the time like, yeah, I'm going to go. You know, she said what are you doing? That's become. I said I'm volunteering. And she goes well, why would you volunteer if you don't get paid? And I'm like, well, let's volunteer work. And it was just like this how do we explain volunteering? Your time is not an exchange of?
Speaker 1:money Like, because I don't think everything needs to be exchanges of money and, yes, I know we work in a world that money is important. We use it, we spend money. Again, I think money is energy exchange, right, right, but I don't necessarily think it's everything, and I shouldn't be the only motivator on why we wake up in the morning. There's so much more to life than just going to work. So and that's probably what I would, you know, probably the greatest wisdom that I can share is that there is more than work. I also work, but I love the juiciness of like taking my teeth into something else that has more meaning, that has deeper meaning, that I feel excited about, and I think that that's something that I wish for everybody on the planet to like identify with, that can find that thing, whatever that thing is. But you're like, hey, I'm taking my strengths and I'm putting them over here because it matters, because it impacts people, and I think that you know, finding that is a real, it's a real gift. It's really really quite wonderful.
Speaker 2:I mean I, I don't know, I don't think we've ever really, you know I, I, I, you know, I agree, yeah, that really hit me, I think, because we live, and I don't know if it's just you know I, I work in corporate America. You know, most of us here have worked in corporate America, I'm assuming. And it's really about the transactions and it's so nice to have something of a transaction involved, and I think that's the reason why Eileen and I do the podcast, just because we love to be able to provide a space for people to tell their stories and, plus, we as storytellers, also love to hear really grand stories. So for us, we get to enjoy this, but for us, it's really about providing the space to tell stories and it goes beyond that transactional philosophy. So I love that you, you sought something that is beyond the work, the nine to five. That's wonderful.
Speaker 1:I think you know I know that not everybody has the option to do that, but I don't want to be naive. People have extra time to volunteer that, have extra time to fit in or have a support system to do that. Some single parents don't have that.
Speaker 1:Some people just are working from sunrise to sunset and I will never, ever compare my privileged life to somebody else's and assuming they have extra time to kill. But I do know that there is deeper meaning, and the deeper meaning may be, it can look different for everybody and I think that just using our imagination right, using our imagination, being imaginative as adults, is so important for our mental health. It's so important to figure out, ok, where can I reside? That holds significant meaning Like what does that look like for me? Because I don't think what I do in my volunteer time should ever take away time from people you love. It shouldn't take away time from the priorities you set for yourself in your life and your love. You should be able to make adjustments.
Speaker 1:I remember when I brought Elliot home, my son Elliot, from the hospital, I actually reached out to all my volunteers in the valley that I live in and they said, hey, I have a newborn baby, I can't hold events. If you'd like to hold an event, come pick up supplies from my house. And people did. It was great, it was wonderful. I mean I was able to still go to the post office and mail letters out, but I couldn't hold public events the way that I could before, because you're you know you're pretty homebound and you're just taking care of the baby and your healing and it's important to have that closeness and that precious space to be with them, and so being able to set boundaries for myself has been hard.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to lie I want to do this full time and at the moment I'm not. It's not the right timing and, to be perfectly honest, as an ED, I'm not getting paid. And it's not even about the pay. I mean, it's not the motivation for me. It's not like I'm getting paid so much money. You know I'm not getting paid anything and I still so much appreciate this work. It really speaks to my soul and why I'm here. So that's why I'm doing it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, it's, it's beautiful and, like I said, I mean, ever since I found out about it, I try to encourage others to participate in it as well. When we were talking about some of that too, just you know, even if you're at work. So, like like Cheryl and I were talking about before we we started, we started this. I think some of those things can happen at work too. Right, it can be during the day job in which you are doing things, and that can be encouraging those that are newer into the organization and showing them the ropes, looking down and helping, you know, lend a hand down to those who are below to mentor to do those kind of things too.
Speaker 3:It doesn't have to be outside of those working hours in which you were, you were giving of your time. I think there are ways to incorporate some of that as well, because I get it Like there, when you're working two jobs and are are, you know, just to be able to sleep, is is something that is a necessity at that point. So, yeah, it doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be Heather, you've done an amazing job and it doesn't have to be creating a whole nonprofit.
Speaker 1:So, um, no, no, no, absolutely not, and I totally realized that that's not the journey for everybody.
Speaker 1:And no, nor should any, nor would I recommend everybody, everybody doing it right. It may not be for you, you don't want to deal with that amount of paperwork or stress or, um, I get it, um, but I do know that there's so many amazing organizations that are doing such beautiful work. If you resonate with any of those that are already doing some work that you resonate in, then, hallelujah, like that's, that's great. You know, cause it's like. What I really like about people spread love is that you can pick it up or put it down anytime you want. There's no pressure to do it. Um, you, you do it when you can find time to do it. You maybe want to do it around the holidays as like a family event, like it's totally up to you. It should fit with your life, um, and that's really what it's about. It's about accessibility, it's about being able to show up for community. If this is how you resonate and connecting with community, I say yeah, like, let's do it. I can show you how to do it. Um, it's very, in my mind, very simple, but I think that some people need to walk through and need to be reminded like, hey, I can do something. And when some of it is self-motivating, right Like it. Is that self-motivation? You just, you know, take the initiative, um, uh, you can even look at if you go to our website, you can look at the testimonials and you can see how it's impacted people's lives. So that's the measurable. That's when you know, okay, this is something here. You can see pictures of the cards, um, and so yeah, and it goes.
Speaker 1:So what's really exciting, you guys and I'll totally share this too is not only does somebody initially receive notes of love, but then they see that it comes from people's spread, like the organization's. People spread love. And then they say to themselves, well, I can do it too. And then they continue to spread love. So it doesn't stop with just one person. It continues on and on, which is what it was supposed to do. It's supposed to be something that doesn't rely on me, which is why it's called not, it's not called Heather spreads life. People spread love. It's supposed to be about you guys. It's nothing to do with me. It's not about the ego. It's not about somebody miraculously saving the day and swooping in with a bunch of greeting cards. You know, um, but as simple as it is to write a note of love to somebody, it's not the act of doing it is not original at all, right, but it's the, the whole act of doing it and the receiving in it and that energy exchange. That's really, really Truly. There's something there and I think that that's really cool to like be part of that journey and that exploration with the community and seeing how people are affected by it and how people are realizing like they can also elect themselves.
Speaker 1:You go to our website and you can click on request love and you request love for yourself, you can request love for someone else and the reason like I had a actually a recently um, an event I had this weekend I had a volunteer that said I'm so sorry I couldn't show up going through some hard times and I could really use some love. So if you can you add me to who needs love lists. And I told her absolutely, we're going to add you. Um, and she's like I just know what I'm required into right now and the previous uh, before that, another event I had a gentleman was sitting down for the first time with PSL's never heard of us and was writing notes of love for a little boy and he goes I could really use some love and he kind of giggled, but he really meant it, um, and his best friend one of his best friends would see next to him and she goes, he could use some love.
Speaker 1:And so she requested love for him. Um, because it's like it's so important it doesn't have to be, you know, suffering severely from this disease, or maybe I'm going through divorce, or maybe I need to just be acknowledged that I'm amazing, you know, and maybe you just maybe that it's not so tragic and it could be anything, and I think that often we forget how humanness is very fluid and, um, we're all facing some things, some kind of adversity, um, and we need to be acknowledged, and I think that it is simple as that. Sometimes we just need to be seen, okay.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, that's so true. I mean I'm not going to go into all of it, but this weekend was national suicide prevention day and just as you're talking about asking for love, asking to be poured into and how like, just even me sitting here being like, oh gosh, I could never volunteer myself for that. Why, why can't? Why do I feel the shame of asking to be poured into? Like what is it that? Do I feel selfish for asking for that? You know, like it just like to think about why it would feel wrong of me to ask to be poured into and to ask for love. I mean, that's gotta be.
Speaker 3:It's an epidemic, I assume, in people craving that but not being able to ask for it. So, you know, I just, oh my gosh, I don't know. That just really hit me hard with a lot of things going on in life right now. But, yeah, I mean, even you know what, ask for it, put your name in there. We'll put your name in there for you if you need it. But that's, it's okay if you need a little something right now and you were amazing and worthy of having that love.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I love it. You've really hit on something, eileen, because I think a lot of us have a hard time, especially adults with worthiness, because we have to unpack a lot of our worth or what we perceive is worthy of anything, worthy of love, worthy of acknowledgement that we're alive, that you know. And, again, I think, if you're living and breathing, you should be acknowledged, and I think that you can still acknowledge people that aren't. But I think living here in this moment and can receive love is so important and I will have to tell you so we have, as an organization, I've sent love to people that are in the public eye, but also sent love to people that are not. But what's really cool is that lately I've been sharing and, well, I've been writing notes of love to Patch Adams.
Speaker 2:You're familiar with Patch Adams. Oh, my goodness, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's been exchanging letters with me personally to People Spread Love. He wrote me back and he asked more about the organization and he goes that's incredible that you're doing this kind of work, and so it's just really cool to like share our story and talk to him more intimately through letter writing, because if you write him, you guys, you will get a letter back hands down. He'll always write you back and what's so incredible is that he's like it was so fulfilling to receive notes of love from your volunteers, like how sweet to be acknowledged that I do something in the world. And it's like, yeah, we need it. Like because I mean we could go tomorrow, right, so being acknowledged and feeling love, like I'm starting to cry. It really there's something there and I think if we just acknowledge people with a social media post or something in there, a comment on excuse me, I'm like an O-bit right.
Speaker 1:After you pass away and we have say all the kindest loving things to people after they're gone. It's like we have lost an opportunity to say I see you now the way that you are.
Speaker 3:This is why I love you, Heather. I'm just gonna say I love you, I love you. I do. I think you're such a special gift to this world. Truly.
Speaker 1:You're very sweet and I think the thing is is like there's something there, like humans forget how special they are. Every single one of us are really special. We're all unique. We have we bring something special to someone's lives and it's just really important to like unlock that, because as adults, we lose our sense of self. We lose it because our ego gets in the way.
Speaker 1:We wanna look cool, we wanna look hip, you know, whatever it looks like, we wanna do it right, we don't wanna get it wrong and maybe in our older years or even even our death bed, we're like oh, I didn't have to put myself through that torment of criticizing myself every time that I made a decision. I could have just been okay with like and been loving to myself, because that is the longest relationship you'll ever have is with yourself. And the thing is is we gotta pour into ourselves like affirmations, sharing your gratitude, sharing your wins, having this opportunity to like say hey, little me or hey, future me, because there's a future me website. I don't know if you guys have ever done that.
Speaker 1:I'm sure, oh, it's pretty great. So this is another really great tool that I just love. But you can go, I think it's. I think it's future me, yeah. So, futuremeorg, you can write a letter to your future self. So you can write a letter to yourself September 11th 2024. And write specifically a letter to yourself, and then what it'll do is it'll send it to you in an email reminding yourself of whatever you wanna tell yourself in the future. And I think it's pretty clever. I've done it several years in a row and I haven't done it in a couple years, but I think I might start again. Still like remind myself. You're on the right track.
Speaker 2:You know, I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, why not? Like I don't know, it's pretty, there's so many tools that are fingertips, right, like there's so many things. Let me share this one thing with you while I, while I put on spaghetti sauce on the stove so hold on a second. God, no, you're not. But the one thing that I find you know pretty incredible that I started a couple years ago with my family I think it's only three years this year Is I have a memories jar. We call it divine memories because that's my last name, and what we do is we have little sheets of paper scrap paper and we write memories. So we write silly things, our son does silly moments, and we write it in these little, little shreds of paper. It's a little scrap pieces of paper. We date them too, so we don't forget special things. That happen because we tend to, as human beings, as part of our survival mechanism, is that we focus on the things that went wrong. We don't focus on the good, and so often what happens is we fixate on what went wrong.
Speaker 1:I got hurt. You know this loss happened, and not that it not that that doesn't matter, but it's more important to focus on what good things did happen. How did you? You know just even small things, right, like so, for example, oh gosh, my son said something funny. He was always saying something funny, but we've got moments in there that we share and it's just so incredible how we miss out on life when we focus on the stuff that's wrong.
Speaker 1:But what I noticed is that during New Year's, we'll take out all of the memories that have been folded in there and my husband will write something, my son will write something and I will write something and we'll put them in order from which they happened and then we'll tape them inside of this journal we have in our bookcase and it becomes this memory journal that we've collected over the whole year and it becomes this opportunity to reflect on how beautiful life is together.
Speaker 1:How beautiful life is even if there are some negativity in that. Right, if you lost a job and in my case I got hurt on Easter and tore my ACL and I needed surgery and something to rehabbing my knee but it's still a gift, because what it has taught me is to stand still to set the paint. So I've been painting more and I've just been more focused on getting my body to where it needs to be so I can like maybe I needed to stand still for that many months, maybe I needed to sit down and like take a load off. I don't know what that lesson was, but there's so much level of importance embedded in life and we miss it if we fixate on what's wrong and I think that what's so incredible. As a family, we're learning to focus on good stuff and focus on the joys of life, and I think that focusing on those silly things was pretty cool. So it's a tool I use with my family and it seems to be working really well and it helps us reflect on the year with joy.
Speaker 3:That's such an incredible idea, Cheryl. Do you see when I really wanted to talk with Heather tonight? Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yes, Heather, I hope you continue to shine your humanity and kindness and heart centered work on the universe, because we need it. We need it in the worst way possible. I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. I have so much to think about and now I have to go look at this future me site because I'm so like what. This is amazing and I love that. Not only have you, your site is gonna be chock full of resources for people, so what we're hoping to do for our podcast is share those resources. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind I know you've mentioned it a couple of times but how do people connect with you and your organization?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, so you can visit our website at peoplespreadlovecom and poke around the site. Contact me at Heather at peoplespreadlovecom. I'll always answer your emails and get back to you really promptly. As a matter of fact, this Thursday we've got a virtual meeting and I'm not sure if this podcast will be available by Thursday and I don't wanna put any unneeded pressure on you, ladies. What we do is we offer monthly Zoom calls with our volunteers. Okay, sorry about that, cheryl, that's okay.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so we actually host a virtual meeting every month to help, and it's usually the third Thursday of every month. This Friday is an exception. I'll be out of town on Friday, so I just switched it to this Thursday, but it's an opportunity for potential volunteers and peoplespreadlove and current volunteers to learn more about the organization and really just listen to our volunteer coordinator, jackie, and myself and talk about peoplespreadlove and how it fits into your life. So it's a great opportunity. An hour of our time. We just volunteer an hour a month to talk to people, because sometimes people, like I mentioned before, don't wanna do it wrong and they have a harder time using their imagination. And peoplespreadlove is really about making it work and fit in your life, and some people need that extra guided hand, so we do that as well.
Speaker 2:It's wonderful yeah.
Speaker 3:So okay. So our last question is really this this is happening question. That is about, like you know, it's really about the things that are on your heart and boy, oh boy, my dear, you wear your heart on your sleeve so much and it's a beautiful, wonderful, wonderful thing. You know, it is finding those things, that and things that we wanna pursue or need filled in our heart that we need to continue pursuing over the next course of our lives. So you know what does that look like for you or for peoplespreadlove? You know that's sort of what's happening. Next Is it a continuation of the amazing work that you're doing? But, yeah, is there anything that you're feeling that just is coming up for you that is definitely going to be happening or that you feel like needs to happen within your life to continue living it to its fullest?
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness. So, hmm. So there's a lot of things that are on my heart that I wanna see happen with peoplespreadlove, but one that comes up really strongly just asking myself, because I like to ask myself, like that girl, what's going on in here. And before I got on the call with you guys, I did a journal entry and it felt so good to write it all on paper, writing down some vulnerabilities, writing down gratitude, you know, bringing up to speed where I'm at, because there's a lot of heaviness, there's a lot going on in the world and I feel empathy or human suffering and I wanna show up.
Speaker 1:And so often times they get super scrambling because I wanna live in a certain way, but I also have this beautiful life with my family and that I wanna be present for and, to be truth be told, I'd love to be able to like say, hey, this is where we're doing the PSL, psl volunteers, please take it up, like here's the ton, now it's your turn, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:And I wanna do that so bad because in my mind I've been so, I wanna be part of everything and I just can't. I can't, possibly not with the growth that I wanna see happen with PSL. I wanna see people normalizing this kind of behavior and compassion and empathy for others. I want it to be something that's like that is a global phenomenon, something that people wanna do on their own and will do on their own, and they do it with heart and I think there's that. But I think, from a human level, just without the hassle, I just wanna be able to, like, sit and write a journal entry. Do you think it's so reflecting, having a moment to put down my damn phone and I apologize if I'm not supposed- to no, you're totally fine, you're very welcome, but I just wanna put my cell phone down.
Speaker 1:I just wanna put it down. I wanna put the email away. I don't wanna work when I shouldn't be working. I wanna be able to set boundaries for myself. I wanna be like there's time for everything in. Okay, there's time for everything, but it's not important that we do it all right now.
Speaker 2:And I'm a right now person.
Speaker 1:I'm a. If you look at my, you're welcome to find me in my personal profile a doer of stuff. That's how it's spelled a doer of stuff. It's because I'm a doer, I'm always doing something, but I also need to have moments of being myself and not being able to put on a roll and I don't have to do anything. I could just reside, I can just exist, and that should be enough.
Speaker 3:That's a huge message that a lot of people need to hear, including myself. So I appreciate. I think, cheryl, I got it. I appreciate that reminder, so thank you, I love you Brad.
Speaker 2:I do, I do, I do. Oh my goodness, heather, thank you so much for your time on behalf of Eileen myself, this is you Only Go Once. Thanks everyone for joining us Until next time. We'll see you later, bye.
