Love is all around.

The beginning of Love Actually has got to be one the most powerful introductions to just about any film that I have ever seen. 

Do you remember it? 

 

Not from Love Actually. Just a cool picture I wanted to include.

It's Hugh Grant's sultry voice placed over a montage of different folks hugging and reuniting with smiles and kisses in the Heathrow Airport. Grant's character says,

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.”

I wish we would take the time to sit back and look around and really take a minute (or less!) to notice the love that surrounds us every second. I have a bit of a suspicion that we don't do this nearly enough. We blame it on life and its pace. The need to get stuff done; rushing to get to soccer practice, getting dinner on the table, making sure the essays are graded in time for school to start in the morning. We fail to see the little things... the moments of love that end up as little epic moments in the highlight reel of our lives. Man, if only we paid more attention.

Today I stopped and I made an effort to look for love.

And I didn't have to wait long to see it.

I noticed it when Kilisimasi ("Christmas" in Tongan and also a little boy's name) shared his homemade kite with the smallest boy in school and together they giggled and ran hand-in-hand across the school field holding on to a kite made of sticks and notebook paper.

It appeared as I watched 'Akesiu share her breakfast with a little girl who had forgotten hers.

It was sent my way as a chorus of cute Tongan children yelled "Hello Manatee!" as I exited my front door.

I felt it when Mosese brought over 14 bananas because he knows how much the palangi enjoys stuffing her face with potassium.

It surrounded me when I watched my Class 6 students practice this song for their last day of school (which is getting closer every day!). 

Where did you see love today? Did you have to look for it?