The Nurturing Power of Love Notes

“Love is louder!” ~ Shannon Weber

 

This past weekend I was honored to be the keynote speaker and workshop facilitator for a women’s retreat in the Southern California mountains. The theme of the retreat was “Celebrate Nurturing” and I gave a talk called “Nurturing the Chrysalis: Honoring, Nurturing, and Loving Ourselves Through all the Transitions and Transformations of our Lives.”

 

It was such a joy to share my passion for self-nurturing and have the opportunity to encourage a hundred women to give themselves permission to cultivate self-compassion, develop more self-awareness, take inspired action to nurture themselves, and acknowledge their growth and deepen their gratitude practice.

 

My talk was interactive and experiential and included time for the participants to speak in pairs about a transition they were currently experiencing and the impact it was having in their lives, engage in a guided meditation focused on compassionately accepting all parts of themselves, and even write a love note to themselves with the prompt, “I love you because…”.

 

I was thrilled to incorporate my friend Shannon Weber’s love notes in my talk and throughout the weekend, culminating in the closing workshop making love note signs all together.

 

I first met Shannon Weber four years ago at Tedx Encinitas where she spoke about changing the world one love note at a time. Shannon shared her story about creating a sheet that said “I love you” in big block letters with pull tabs at the bottom saying “I love you, too” and leaving it on her refrigerator. She was newly divorced and at times connected to a thin layer of sanity and wanted her kids to know she loved them whether she was with them or not.

 

One day, she recounts walking up to the love note on the refrigerator and realizing it was for her instead of from her. She pulled off an “I love you, too” tag and took it with her for the day.

 

She was so inspired about the gift this simple practice offered her that she began posting these love notes all over town.

 

Soon she began to hear people’s amazing experiences of finding the love notes and about the difference they made in their lives and so she and her children put more and more love notes up.

 

Shannon then started a website www.LoveYou2.org where people could post about their experiences with the love notes and she received inspiring stories from all over the world. Shannon also painted love notes on wood and hung them on fences, near underpasses, on gates, and anywhere she felt called to leave them. Each sign carried an encouraging message of love and hope.

 

My husband Tony and I were so inspired hearing Shannon’s story that we started painting our own love note signs and leaving them around town, on fences near the beach, and on hiking trails. We started hosting love note sign making parties with our neighbors, friends, and clients, and heard amazing stories about the joy that resulted from these signs where ever they ended up.

 

Then three summers ago, we started hosting love note making parties for the Hands of Peace participants and staff. Hands of Peace brings Palestinian, Israeli, and American teens together to use dialog and relationship building to cultivate youth leaders for peace. We have hosted participants and staff each year and I now serve on the board of directors. We made stencils in Arabic, Hebrew, and English and everyone created beautiful multi-lingual messages of hope, peace, and love that were given to their host families or travelled back home with them.

 

Every time we have created a space for love notes to be painted magic happens!

 

So I knew that creating love notes would be a perfect way to close this women’s retreat celebrating nurturing! I was so joyful witnessing women from their twenties to their eighties all enjoying being creative together and making beautiful love note signs. I created a sign which reads “nurture joy” and embodied my intention for the women’s retreat. The participants made love note signs that read: gratitude, kindness, nurture play, transformation, growth, mystery, cultivate love, wholeness, be the change, compassion, trust yourself, breathe, and grow kindness. We all felt encouraged and uplifted reading each other’s signs and knew that these messages would spread more love, kindness, and inspiration in the world.

 

 

I am so grateful for Shannon’s vision of changing the world one love note at a time and the opportunity to share it with all the women at the retreat. This simple act of love is empowering and provides as much joy for the giver as the receiver.

 

I received the following love note at the end of the retreat that read, “Kelley thanks for believing and encouraging me to love myself and to move forward through my grief.” I am so grateful for this sweet note and the blessing that these love notes offer me and the world.

 

May you write and paint nurturing love notes to spread more love and kindness in your life and may you continue to nurture peace in the world from the inside out!