Love and Old Shirts

To Write Love On Her Arms is a charity I’ve long admired. This charity helps raise awareness for those dealing with depression, addiction, self injury and suicide. I bought one of their shirts at the Vans Warped Tour concert back in 2010 outside of St. Louis. An interesting story is that I still own the shirt and I’m actually wearing it as I type this blog post.

I’m thinking of getting another one of their shirts soon. What a great idea it is to shower people with love who feel hopeless and helpless! To write love instead of despair and destruction is quite wonderful. I’d go so far as to call it beautiful.

We can all write love in each other’s stories by being kind and considerate. We can choose our words wisely and our actions with wisdom as well. I believe lives are sometimes saved and the one who helped never knows or realizes that they had any impact at all in the situation. When we choose to write love there’s no room for hate.

One time when I was wearing my shirt a stranger commented on how cool it is that I was wearing it and supporting the charity. This man told me that I was only the second man he’d ever seen wearing a TWLOHA shirt. He remarked it was often young women and girls who he’d seen wearing the shirts and supporting the movement of love.

As a man with manic depression I know wholeheartedly that depression is real. And I know the tremendously positive impact that love has played in my life’s story. Let’s love one another the best we can.