LOVE

Where is the love?

The terror attacks, the Grenfell Tower fire and other heartbreaking events that have taken place these past few weeks in the UK have been testing to say the least. Attempting to wrap my head around the 'whys' and 'hows' left me numb and unwilling to plug into the world. The beautiful city that I call home was rocked by an bomb going off at Manchester Arena just after an Ariana Grande concert on the eve of May 22nd resulting in the deaths of 22 people where the youngest was EIGHT years old. Youthful, ecstatic humans celebrating a bit of the good in their lives with friends and family became victims because of the tragic decision of one. As the updates came pouring in the following morning and the number of police officers on the streets grew, my perception of the world shifted yet again and it started to feel like I had slipped into one of the many crime dramas I love and now starred in my own version of Dramaworld.

Where is the love?

Despite the ever-apparent presence of uncertainty, prejudice and fear, it is hard to deny the basic human instinct to help those in need as exemplified by news of the Manchester community giving free taxi rides, places to sleep and blood to victims of the Manchester Arena bombing; the response to Ariana Grande's #OneLoveManchester benefit concert and; the numerous fundraising pages dedicated to helping the residents of the Grenfell Tower. I know much worse is happening in other parts of the world every day on both large and small scales and it may seem difficult to imagine a world where peace and love do truly reign but... to not try and make that kind of world a reality is a greater crime I think. 

Where is the love? 

It is relatively easy to write a blog post, retweet, post a photo/story on Instagram or make a video blog sharing our thoughts about the plethora of issues of today. What I am struggling with at the moment is finding my own style of spreading the love we are all capable of giving in practical, effective and long-standing ways; merely thinking about these natural or man-made atrocities does not get us any closer to the dream. We cannot afford for the light of love to be drowned out by chaos, ignorance and just plain hatred. And so, spreading the love in our everyday is what we shall do as a minimum; small acts of kindness always go a long way whatever the latest newspaper headlines read.