How many places do you travel to in a day? Maybe you're a full-time student, maybe you're a full-time employee, maybe you do part-time school and work. Maybe you're a stay at home parent or a caregiver, regardless of what our job or daily activity is, the likelihood is that you travel to at least a couple different places each day. Even inside you're own home, there are different rooms to go into. Regardless of where you are each and every day, the daily challenge is to love where you are. Loving where you are is not intuitive and often times we overlook things due to the fact that we have become numb to the act. As you continue to read, you will gain insight on how to love where you are.
What does loving where you are even mean? It means to take notice of everything around you, to be present and to genuinely take notice and interest on those around you. In today's society, it is so easy to be self-absorbed and invested in one's own goals and self-interest that life passes by like a blur. Loving where you are, REQUIRES individuals to slow down, be present at the moment and have an outward look on life.
An example of loving where you for students, would include sitting with someone who might be sitting alone, introducing yourself to someone new at school. Examples for professional employees would include scenarios such as collaborating with coworkers, or reviewing a peers work when they ask even though you may be busy with your own work. The point of loving where you are is to take the time to make someone else feel valued, noticed and ultimately loved. Stepping down off the pedestal that we have placed ourselves on out of our own self-importance to support and love on the individuals who have been placed in our lives.
I heard a story of a couple who loved where they were, where they saw a woman sitting alone at an event and they invited her to sit with them and upon talking with her learned about her story. The woman who was originally sitting alone had a rough past and was working on getting back on her feet and to better her life so that she could escape from the person she was. This couple was able to give the woman people to listen to her, to support her and to love on her in order for her to not feel alone in that moment.
Loving where you are, does not need to be extream acts of service or outrageously large gestures. Simply hugging someone, taking food to someone who can't afford to eat, sitting silently with someone who's grieving are all ways to love on people right where you are. It does not require foreign travel, it does not require deep wallets, it does not require status, it simply requires giving someone the time of day to ensure they feel as if their life matters to someone. What you may think is a small gesture, may greatly affect that individual for the rest of their life and could even completely alter their life, simply because someone loved on them where they were.
Take on the challenge, for the next day, week, month, or year, do your daily best to love on everyone right where you are. Could be a smile, could be the tone in which you present opposing ideas, could even be constructive and supportive critique in order to help better the individual or their work. It's ultimately about how we interact with one another daily. Imagine a world where we as humans build one another up each day, supporting each other in life, both in good times and in bad. This world could have a much brighter future. So are you in? Will you start today as day one, or will you start 'one day'?
