Is a hello something that we never really missed and now we are finding it again?

I haven’t posted a blog in 3 months. Tonight the Lord put it on my heart to say “Hello” to you guys and so I shall blog and it is feeling great to do so.

Recently, “Hello”s have been flying all throughout the Internet since the Coronavirus pandemic has entered our International community and we are practicing social-distancing.

Our Hellos are broadcasted through Facebook live, Facebook stories, Instagram, Instagram stories, YouTube videos. They are in the form of Italians singing from their windows which have been lifting our spirits here in America, they are in the form of virtual fitness classes, they are in the form of humor, as well as in the form of people keeping in touch with people.

In the past, social media had always been a double-edged sword, causing us to not know how interact on a human level anymore. Isolation & loneliness were on the rise in society as social media started to take over our personal time.

But now…

Social media is bringing us together again.

It seems that in the exact same way social media had taken away our need to say Hello to our neighbors, it is now an essential tool that is helping us say Hello to our neighbors… both near and far.

Fears and anxiety melt away some when we get to reach out and say “Hello”…a virtual hand to hold and that is something beautiful.

Oftentimes, saying “Hello” virtually seems easier that doing it in person. There is a safe distance, a safe boundary… so it may not be as healthy as a “real” old-fashioned interpersonal interaction; but it is working to ease our loneliness and isolation so I’ll take it.

So thank you to Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Systrom, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, & Jawed Karim (founders of Facebook, Instagram, & Youtube respectively) for helping us keep in touch as a Community especially in times like this.

And to my wonderful subscribers…. Hello. You will always have my virtual hand to hold.

As always, Look with Intention.

XO, Jen

With my grey hairs comes a softness from within that I have felt growing with age.

This softness has developed sometimes from gentle loving experiences and sometimes from deep pain.

Recently, I had been violated and I was so caught off guard by this thief, that I didn’t even have the courage to put up a boundary.

After the less than two-hour encounter, I was left feeling helpless, stupid, and emotionally raped. Physical rape is something that I cannot imagine because this social rape was already something terribly violating.

I have taken two self-defense courses, was brought up in a loving home, have no stressors in life…and yet, after all this, I was left feeling pure RAGE and I was ready to lash out at the world.

I almost went live on Facebook to say “F— YOU WORLD”. And I meant it. I was done with humanity.

My husband and my parents thought I was just frustrated with work. No. I didn’t even know how much rage and anger was inside.

I didn’t even know how to tell my husband or parents why I was so angry. I was angry with myself because I felt so helpless….and stupid.

At 3:46am that night, I woke up for no reason and kept looking over at my husband, Jacky, with the hope that he would wake up so I could talk with him and maybe somehow he could explain to me what had just happened to me the day before.

He woke and I still didn’t have the courage to even know where to begin telling what had happened. Eventually he came over and kissed me all over my face like he does every morning and I spilled it all…every ugly detail.

I cried tears that needed to escape. Tears of anger. Tears of feeling stupid and helpless. He laid down and let me hug onto him so tight.

I kept saying…”Why did I allow this to happen to me?”

He said, “You are very kind and you did the right thing. That person caught you off guard and now you know how to protect yourself from that person.”

Like a salve, he healed my raw inflammed wound. I’ve never felt so relieved.

So I learned that people that are angry are people that have been hurt.

A week later, one of my friends on Facebook posted this…

People like me are too confused and raging to know that we need one of those “FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE ” stamps on us to let people know we need nothing but CARE…

BUT..

when we see people as the Lord Jesus Christ sees people…it is quite easy to see the stamp of FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE on…. EVERYONE.

As always, Look with Intention

XO, Jen

If you are breathing you have Hope. There is nothing mysterious or secret about it. The spirit or life breath that we are granted is by nature something that yearns for more.

There is nothing that we can do to earn it. There is nothing we can do to lose it.

It is the simple beating of the heart which begins at the time we are conceived.

The sun rising in the new day. Letting the light slowly focus our eyes on the day ahead. Even in the bleakest of environments…we Hope.

We Hope that we can see. We Hope that we can make it.

The most beautiful people are not the most financially blessed; in fact, the wealth that this world provides often breeds the opposite of Hope. With the burdens of material wealth, come sometimes generations of heartaches in families.

So as you read this today, Hope is there. It is always there. Hope is what keeps us afloat. Hope is what keeps us breathing every minute of every day that we are granted to walk on this Earth.

Your existence may seen useless. It may seem a burden. It may seem hopeless…

That is where that is a lie. A lie that our minds tell us because we are emotional and emotions cloud reality.

As Dr. Kelly Brogan, Holistic Psychiatrist, said, “Lean into the pain.” So take the next minute and just feel whatever you are experiencing at the moment: if it is pain, lean into it. If it is regret, lean into it. If it is happiness, lean into it.

By leaning into this experience, you will be able to come out of it on the other side, learning something… something that someone is needing to hear or learn from you.

So hang on to Hope. Someone is depending on you because you are what may give them the Hope to hang on just one more day.

As always, Look with Intention

XO, Jen