LovePrints. Dear Us.

Dear Us.

America, we are powerful. Our deeds have impact, as do our words. When we use them directly in someone’s name, it has more value.

Please, lets use them for love. Let’s use them for good. We deserve it.

Bullying comes in several forms, and none of them are purposeful or good. One such form is verbal abuse. It has several subsets, from face to face, untruths, and malice. In some cases, it is the devaluing of another person by not identifying them by the name given to them, or the name they have chosen. It is the dropping of names.

Why would you ever want to call someone something other than their name?

Put the labels away. Let’s use names. Let’s use love.

Generalizations are problematic. It is mentally lazy, and emotionally disconnected. Call people by their name. Say it to them. Give them credit for who they are, and what the name is for. It is being present enough to tell them that their name matters. We all deserve it. We are all worthy.

Use your words for good. Use your words with love. Call a person by their name and use love to do so. Identify an act by its name and speak to it for the good of us all. If an act is good, say so. If an act is not good, speak to the person committing the act and demand better from them, and tell them specifically why.

Use our names with love. Add a thank you. Add a you are welcome. Feel generous in using please. Feel free in using first and last names. (Leave the middle names for parents) Feel free to repeat them all, with love.

Every courtesy that we were ever taught starts with addressing people by their names, and by adding love to it by our actions.

Social media has created walls that do not need to exist. It has created voids that have been used to do damage and cause pain. Those spaces can be filled. Those spaces cannot exist when love is present. When confronted with a situation where your voice is required, find names and love before addressing it. Online allows for disconnected voices from the shadows. It allows for loud noises from the dark. Love can add light and cause a connection.

Your next post is important. Your next text. Your next call. Be the light. Be present. Be love.

Use your words to make the deed a love filled one. Speak directly, and specifically. If someone did something worth speaking on, say their name. If someone did something that requires questioning, say their name. Do not add them to a group. Do not allow them to remain nameless. Connect to them, their name, and do something good from that point. We need it. We will all be better for it.

Leave those group names and anonymous ghosts alone. Get personal. Give credit where it is due. Ask questions to where they can get answers. Give love to someone specific. Act in love to someone. Use their name. You want them to know that what you say and do matters. Be present.

America, we are powerful. Our deeds have impact, as do our words.

Please, let’s use them for love. Let’s use them for good.

We ALL deserve it.

Your LovePrint is exactly what someone needs right now.

You are exactly what someone needs right now.

Imagine that.  Someone needs exactly what you have to offer right now. They will cross paths with you, and they are ready for you to fill the void of the day. Or of the moment. Or of a lifetime.

It can be a smile that makes the bad experience go away. It can be the connection that reminds us all that we belong, we matter, or that someone cares. Your smile can be the perfect smile. It is the perfect smile.

It can be a hug that makes us feel protected, acknowledged, or involved. It can close the gaps caused by the past, or it can be another opportunity tomorrow. The hug is a wonderfully consistent medication for a lot of what ills us. Your hug makes everything better.

It can be the voice of reason, the voice of logic, or the voice with exact the information required to make things move forward and up. That voice can be the perfect explanation of why, the directional leadership to how, and the confirmation that why we do what we do is right and good. Your voice is the perfect pitch, and music to ears in need.

It can be the added question that leads to clarity, or it can be the insight that allows us to make a decision that has been lost by chaos. It can be the answer to the one question that has provided doubt and hesitancy. Your voice has the power.

It can be an open hand that elevates, it can be a push or a pull, or support for those in need. That hand can lessen burdens, it can lead a partner to the right path, or the pointing of a new direction and way. The hand can applaud with another hand, it can alter what would be a bad decision, and it can be the acknowledgement that something wonderful is happening or going to happen. It can be a hand up, a hand out, or a helping hand. Your hand is steady and strong.

It can be an ear that pays attention, acts as a sounding board, or the place where a great or bad idea goes for testing. It can be the resting place for a great story, and awful joke, a question that does not need answering, or a place to just be heard and considered.

It can be you. Simply you. It can be you occupying space, being in the right place, or simply sharing your wonderful face. It is often you. Just you. Being you.

Pay attention to your space. Often, you are where you are for a reason. A good reason. Exactly what you have to offer, is needed.

Have some love with you when you get there.

Love always is welcome and needed. That’s who you are.

Why do student athletes fail? The question may be the problem.

Why do Student Athletes fail? The question may be the problem.

They don’t. The adults fail.

Student Athletes are products of the adults that love them (or don’t). Student Athletes live in a vacuum of adult created and crafted vacuums, each one filled with mixed messages, confusing priorities, and adult angst. Let’s get to the gut of it all. Adults identify (or don’t) the priority. Adults finance the space (or don’t). Adults are hired to achieve said priority (or don’t). Adults create and raise the student athletes, giving them love, purpose, love, goals, love, belief, love, and support (love).

Now that we have identified the new focus of academic failures, we can work to fix the problems. (Adults). Here is the plan: Keep the first thing first. These are student athletes, not athlete students. When done extremely well, they are SCHOLAR ATHLETES (Yes, I dare to set higher standards). Once the adults agree that the student comes before the athlete, then the path to succeeding at the first thing clears. There are fewer obstacles. There are fewer questions.

Adults, please remember moving forward (and up) that ACADEMICS is the thing. Academics is the key to love of self and others. It is the gift to one’s self that keeps on giving. It opens doors, it finds solutions, and it is a statement that the student is love, and loved enough to improve and add to society, community, and the planet. Practice this statement with your students “Learning is love”.

Adults build the communities, schools, and fields. If the academic focus and priority is clear, decisions about them become simple. What is the first thing? How do we make it better? Is it working? Is it love? Yes, love will be a constant in this. Love of self, family, community, school, others and planet. “Learning is love”. Teaching is also love. The giving of knowledge and information may be one of the great blessings known to mankind. The accepting of that love is the sign of intelligence that is carried throughout life. The openness and willingness to be taught, to accept information, to be questioned, heard, considered, and pondered is how invention and creation are born. And, reborn. Feed love. Love feeds.

When those schools are built, “This is where love lives” should be on every building and in every classroom. These words should be in every teacher contract and on every desk. Adults in place should be asked if they love themselves before being given the responsibility of loving our young futures. They should be asked if they love their students. They should be asked if they love what they are teaching and sharing. This ensures the reinforcing of the positive and loving environment that learning needs, and deserves.

When adult coaches are hired, ask them if they know what is THE focus is. (Academics) Ask them what should they focus on when the first thing and ANY other thing conflicts with it. (Academics) Ask what they are being paid for. (Academics) Ask again, what comes first? (Academics). Then celebrate them when they succeed at it. Celebrate them when the thing that comes first is KEPT first. Celebrate them when the love that they have is shared, repeated, and multiplied. Celebrate them!

When adult teachers are hired, ask them the same questions what comes first? (Academics) Then, ask again. Remind them that they are there to love someone’s, everyone’s young people, and to teach them. They are there to love them, even when they do not feel like loving them, or self. Does their love show in their lessons, in their planning, and in their daily connections? Does love appear on the faces of the students, and do the students leave their classrooms in more love than when they got there? Do the students ask questions, do they smile, and do they say thank you? The adults own the room, they are the keepers of time, and the directors of the lives they touch daily.

When the adults send the students to school, is there love on them already? Love comes in all sizes and colors. Love can be a few hugs before and after school. Love can be authentic questions about the day before, the day of, and what the next day holds. Love can be a kiss on the head during study time, it can be a text during the day to remind them of love of themselves and from home. Love can be an email to the teacher or coach saying thank you, one to the student confirming pride and support, or a text to yourself reminding you to send love later. Love can be ten minutes each week with no cell phones and just two smiles, yours and theirs. Love can be acknowledgment that you understand what they are going through because you were them, once.

When the schools, teachers, coaches, parents, and community all state constantly and consistently what they focus is, that is what it will be. When each of them remember that the system is simply the fence posts in place, each one needing the other to help boundary great young people into greater old people, the fence keeps the priority in place. When one post loosens, the others should feel a tug when resistance happens. When a student strays from the path, the posts are pulled with them, signaling to them all that reposting is needed. When the adults remember what the focus is, focus becomes clearer. It is up to the adults to not fail. As coaches are prone to say, “Win or learn. Never lose.”. Once the adults learn that it is STUDENT ATHLETE, winning happens. Some would say that learning leads to winning.

I cannot wait until the adults learn. The student athletes are trying to win. They need our help. And, our love.