We had the honor and privilege this last summer to take an amazing idea; to share ourselves and our expression, wrap it up in our passion for community and sharing, pack it up in a veggie oil bus and take it on the road! In our travels we hit up the west coast and were able to be a part of a beautiful and uniquely creative manifestation of ourselves and our community.  In taking to the road and sharing with you all, we came to learn so much about the world around us.  In discovering new places, meeting new people, and communing with old friends in new ways, we were able to redefine for ourselves what it means to “heart”, and what it means to”Heart” people.

These are questions we are faced with at almost every turn we encounter.  And as we set out on this journey to share and to give to others, perhaps we might have underestimated the things we were going to learn for ourselves along the way. Like how difficult it is to find the truest expression of who we are in ourselves and to  trust each other enough to work together in empowering each and every person to chase that down in whatever way that looks. From our own vantage point the discovery of  our unique and personal art, music, poetry, film, screen printing, cooking, dancing and so much more  has become the rallying point by which we can find a starting point or a common ground to making our individual songs join together in a beauty filled collective chorus. In working together and opening our hearts to those who strive to find their expression, we aid each other along the path. The Iheartpeople tour proved to be a truly remarkable testament to our ability as individuals to seek to fly as high in our own selves while in the process discover how to encourage each other along the road as we reach for our destinations.  Inevitably, as the road stretches, the hours pass, together the question is posed to each and every one of us in every encounter we experience, “what does it mean to love people?”  and what are we really saying when we take a bus across the coast, blast “I heart People” across the side and spread our message from city to city? We all have our own reasons for being here and doing what we do, but in the end, it’s about what we can learn from each other and ourselves in each individual encounter that will teach us what it means to “heart” people.

One thing is for certain, we recognize that we could not have done this without the remarkable support from all of the people around us in our community. From the people we met on the road, to the people that supported us from home, we felt your presence and your strength with us in every step of the way. We are held up by our community, and we celebrate that.  We also took our community on the road, set out to share ourselves to strangers and friends alike, 15 people in a bus, 1000+ miles, 200+ hours  later and we are faced with so many realities of triumph and struggle, laughter and pain, confusion and anger, compassion and sympathy.  The range of emotion and encounter become a wider pallette by which we can draw from.  The tour, was simply a small microcosm of what we experience everyday; there are people all around us, and every day is a chance to discover how to “heart”  them. Perhaps there is one thing we did learn, working together in harmony and unity is important to creating a new narrative of our future, and by creating a new reality by which our consciousness can evolve and grow we push the boundaries of what it looks like to heart people beyond the every day encounters we have become so numb to. We have been discovering that we do not have to live lives that are isolated and wasteful, consumptive and afraid, we recognize that we have the power to reach out to those around us, in bravery and honesty to jump out in a step of good faith and trust, knowing that we can travel to greater distances together than we could have alone. And in that knowledge we venture bravely into unknown territory chasing down with relentless passion the infinite possibilities that are before us all.

In the end, we all travel along on our own journeys, and at some moments we find that we travel together, its important that we remember in each unique moment before us, the places we have come from, the places we are going, and the current moment that we have stepped into, by remembering that these are all just collective moments in the history of our existence. Tiny blips on the radar of the human consciousness we find ourselves evolving into and as we each become who we are supposed to become by “giving joy and watching it be” we are learning to love ourselves and all that comes with our expression, unique as it may be each person for themselves.  It is there, in that bright light that each person shines we learn to make room in ourselves to let others be who they are without judgment knowing that the very thing that makes us beautiful is the same shining light that shines within and without. Sometimes its not easy to love ourselves, and sometimes its not easy to love others, but we gotta strive hard for both, so that the moment one happens to out shine the other, maybe we can remember how similar those lights are from all angles. “Heart” yourself and maybe that’s what it means to “Heart” others.

-The Iheartpeopletour