What does it really mean to love someone?
Love isn't always sunshine and warm days at the beach. It has to endure through the dark days, the stormy days, and the days where we just want to curl up and let it die. Love is the gentle breeze that brings refreshment to a stagnant heart. It's a sweet melody that lingers on our lips even after the musicians have gone home. Love is being there for a sick friend. It's being there for someone even in the event that it won't be returned.
Love is many things.
As I look outside my window, I can't see any blue sky. I wonder what life would be without hope. Without love.
What does life look like when there aren't any blue skies to brighten the dismal days? I think about the Burnside Underground project. It would be foolish to assume that street teens only experience fear and abandonment. They don't own a monopoly on those emotions. They know ecstasy, they know jealousy, they know what it is like to fall in love. They humans just like you and me. Your address doesn't dictate the emotions you experience. The range of emotions is experienced in the life of every human being.
Bad choices have brought them to the streets. Some of them have run away from abusive pasts. Others have fled good homes, trying to prove their independence. In every story, they fell through the cracks. They have become invisible to society; noticed only by their fellow street citizen and police officers on patrol. Imagine how your life would be if you were in those shoes. Imagine how desperately you'd want to be noticed.
So think about it. What's keeping you back from showing love to someone you see on the street?
- Written by Caitlin Muir, Revolutionary Media Team Journalist
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