Yesterday I caught a beautiful glimpse of how the ripple effect of loving something with your whole heart works.
My dad loved art. He felt that art was a visual record of our history. He felt that art was the hope of our world. He felt that art should never be the province of the rich or the elite. Art brought him joy and hope and healing.
He dedicated his life to making art accessible to people by starting multiple museums, sitting on countless museum boards, being an advocate for regional museums around the country, selling art in galleries and departments stores, lecturing about art all over the country, encouraging young people to become artists, giving art scholarships and much much much more.
Yesterday, 27 years after my dad’s passing, a group of people from all over the world who love my dad got together and shared their love of art — as artists, art collectors, art lovers. Some created special works of art for our call — pieces that they’ve been working on since the quarantine began. Some are incredible artists who hadn’t really had much time for their art during their busy lives. But now they are back to making art. Others shared their collections. And some even their Vincent tattoos. But all of us shared the love and connection and joy we felt in each other’s love of art and my dad.
Every single person on our group chat connected and was uplifted by sharing what they love— and I, who was kind of cranky before the call began, felt my whole heart fill with hope!
That’s it. That’s how the ripple effect of Love works.
When you love something or someone or some place or some idea or. . .anything. . .love it with your whole heart. Live that Love, lean into that Love, share that Love.
My brother once said of my dad, “He loved life so life loved him back.”
It sounds simplistic, but it’s true. How many of us really love our lives?
When I was a little girl, I could feel how much my dad loved life. And it was infectious. I thought being a grownup was going to be amazing if we all got to love life this much and live around others who love life this much, too.
But how many of us can really say that we love life with our whole hearts?
Maybe it’s time for us to start. . .
When people get on our Virtual Vincent calls or come on the tours Peter and I lead or the events Peter and I host, I think they’re surprised at how sweet and connected and joy-filled they are. Peter is a lover of life and when I’m not being a frantic workaholic, so am I. And we are always trying to recreate the feeling I had growing up. That feeling IS this ripple effect of Love. It’s that simple.
Yesterday and the previous four weeks that we’ve hosted these Virtual Vincent events, everyone has felt that ripple effect of Love and the joy and connection it brings. All we do is open the door to Love, everyone comes in with Love and we all connect in Love and leave feeling loved. It really is that simple.
Love and we all feel it. Listen to Love and we all feel more loved. Act as Love guides you, and we act in loving ways. This is the only — the ONLY — legacy that matters. Our Legacy of Love.
You can call this pie in the sky or you can try it.
Try it! Live Love. Share Love. This is how we take #LoveViral.
We can call out all the world’s problems. Or we can all keep loving more and more and more and more until the tipping point is LOVE — and Love loves this world whole.
And here’s today’s video: