Month of Love
Joyfully preparing to share cookie love
“Month of Love”. Those words are on a poster at the elementary school where I work. I pass the poster several times a day. It’s just outside the Pre-K classroom and has several scribble-painted hearts pasted on it in purples and reds. Each painted by one of the children in the class. It’s full of celebration that will go for the whole month.
In recent days I’ve been thinking about what a “month of love” might look like in real life. I don’t mean a month with four weeks of Valentines and hearts and chocolate, though. But, rather, a month with the kind of love mentioned in that old song from the sixties –
“C'mon people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.”
In these modern days we might sing “smile on each other” instead of
Loving our community through service
using the word “brother”. You know it’s about smiling and loving everyone – all our brothers and sisters – all shapes, sizes, colors.
It’s a familiar song. I’m sure you’ve heard it play in elevators or as the background music at the dentist office – or maybe it’s one of those songs stashed away in your memory banks from long ago. Good song.
What would that kind of “Month of Love” look like?
A piece of the picture might be Chatham Alliance and all that it does. From the very beginning Chatham Alliance has had it in mind to help people who are hungry. Help people who need food. No questions asked. A way to smile on our brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors. Smile on their lives. Smile on each other because we’re all people in this world with minds and hearts, dreams and feelings, hopes and joys. Each person wanting to have a place in this world and have a good life.
Food is part of the good we share. Chatham Chuckwagon’s frozen packs of meat dishes. Community Harvest’s bowls of blended ingredients meant to boost nutrition. All good. All given away. All given with the idea of smiling on someone’s life.
And then there are the cookies with “Love notes” attached and given out around holidays. They’re about love growing and love giving. They are part of what Chatham Alliance does through the Kids Love Community program. Kids from schools and youth groups in Chatham County learn what it is to put love into action by preparing all the ingredients for hundreds of cookies. They also design, draw, create tags for the cookies – most often including words. They’re a kind of “love note” that’s tied with a festive ribbon to each cookie. It’s a way kids can begin to have empathy for others and practice it. Care and then give. That’s about loving your neighbor who might just have an empty space in their heart and need a little love.
A month of love. That’s what we do. Chatham Alliance smiling on each other while loving their community. Loving all four weeks of this and every month.
