SWEET LOVE -

THE OBSERVATION BOOTH

OP / ED & PHOTO CREDITS ANDREA DIALECT

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love” & “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”- Jackie DeShannon

HOODSCAPES

Hello there, how are you today? I find that to be quite a fitting statement because I care, and thus, I care to know. When talking to many of my muses, that question echoes out now even more so. It hits differently now – ironically, we’ve been talking a lot lately. Usually, I barge into their lives like some kind of Army General barking commands, and they’re much obliged. They have become my balance in many ways, just as my children and granny’s children have.

I laughed at myself yesterday as I was chatting with Brent, one of my mentees and another young man we stumbled upon while on our mission to nowhere; he stuck around. This happens quite often when my permanent muse and I are out and about. Most of them always tell me that that’s their favorite part – the going nowhere in particular, just hanging out. Taking photos, making videos, laughing, crying, whatever.

Most of the material they never see, nor do they ask. Like a mama bear of sorts, I’ve always told them that they must become the picture – something they can be proud of. The photo is simply a tool that allows us to see ourselves from the outside. They get it!

That young man we stumbled upon yesterday was a twenty-seven-year-old, and just as Brent does, the two trailed behind like ducklings. When we do the unthinkable people are intrigued by it. The bus stop was a blaze yesterday as we haphazardly created those shots. We come across this so often now that it’s mindboggling.

WORLDVIEW

Do me a favor right now, if you can – pull up the melody by Jackie DeShannon or Diana Ross’s remake of “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” The challenge is to listen to it often, so that you can feel then see where we really are in our world today, and you will see, I promise, but only if you allow yourself to.

I also smiled to myself yesterday while sitting on that bench with the guys when my father came to mind. Wandering was his favorite pastime. He and my mother were also missionaries, and I have tons of memories of them in action, tucked away. Just the two of them, wandering as sprinkling hope, joy, and peace to those they crossed paths with.

They were always on the clock when it came to God’s work, at the time, I hated it. Now, it’s all love. Back then, people would often tell me that I was cut from the same cloth. I’d reply, “Stop cursing at me!” You can only imagine the clutching of pearls from my elders. It was usually the hierarchy that made such claims. But now I embrace it.

Yes, I have work to do when going nowhere in particular and I’m finally getting on track just as yesterday showed – it is my legacy, but it’s yours too. That means we all have work to do, and love is the infrastructure. Here, you will find captures of frozen moments when, as I was peering out of myself, I was lucky enough to hold. Now you too can sneak a peek. Look…Such beauty out there, that we are.

I ask that you make use of those precious moments and all those amazing examples of life, beauty, and man and God’s creations in our worldview. Let us go now, look, see, sin no more and make disciples. Capture us and it and I love you, you love you, love us!

FROZEN POPCICLES…

DID YOU KNOW….

“What the World Needs Now Is Love” is a 1965 popular song with lyrics by Hal David and music composed by Burt Bacharach. First recorded and made popular by Jackie DeShannon, it was released on April 15, 1965, on the Imperial label after a release on sister label Liberty records the previous month was canceled. It peaked at number seven on the US Hot 100 in July of that year. In Canada, the song reached number one. – Wikipedia

Lyrics