Life is a journey and we cannot do that journey without love, giving love and receiving it. The Green Suitcase initiative is about showing up in small ways every day, every week in the lives of those around us and those we love. It is about bringing love back into our communities. Tangibly making a difference in the lives of others.
The Green Suitcase initiative is inspired by a true story of love in action.
The Green Suitcase inspiration
There was once a young child who sat down at a kitchen table and began to write a letter to her Grandparents who lived a long distance away. She said the usual "how are you?", “I am fine”, “today at school I….” filled the page. When she finished the letter was folded, popped in an envelope and posted.
The next week the young child sat down again and created a Picasso worthy finger painting. This too was sent to her Grandparents. A month later she brought home a “paper lion’ that she’d made at school. This too went to her grandparents. The letter writing went on for many years, sending notes, pictures, paintings & things she’d made.
The child is now 14 and both of her grandparent have passed away.
As she and her family were packing up her grandparents house. On the top of an old wardrobe tucked away in a back bedroom. they discovered an old, soft vinyl, dark green, dusty suitcase with straps and long buckles. They lifted the suitcase down and put it on a bed. The buckles were undone one by one, the long straps released and the large, gold zipper opened. As she lifted the lid the girl gasped. The entire suitcase was filled with every letter, every painting, every picture and every item the child had sent them over the years. Sitting proudly on top of the mountain of gifts was the Paper Lion she’d made so long ago.
I was that young child.
Many years later and the impact of that moment still sits on my heart. As a child I was just sending a picture here and a letter there, keeping in touch with my grandparents. There were no mobile phones, texts, Instagram, FaceTime or Facebook back then. Mail was the main way we did things.
I had no idea of the impact that those ‘love letters” had on my Grandparents.
Today there are so many different ways to intentionally show love and care to those around us. What we can do, and how we do it is only limited to our creativity. However, the most impacting way is an in-person act of love. A card, a coffee, flowers, a hug, a note….
If your family, friends or the people around you had green suitcases what would be in them?
How can you begin to fill them?
The Green Suitcase initiative is for everyone. It’s about love & abundance in action. It’s a call, a challenge, an invitation, a little nudge to activate the filling of others Green Suitcases.