"I Love You!" Needs to Be Said More. by Kama Ruby

While on my way to my treatment room, blasting out Neil Young's, "Out on the Weekend," (Yes, I blast my Spotify playlists way too loud, but this is how I calm down before a packed crazy day as a massage therapist/esthetician,) something remarkable happened. Something that I believe was truly a message from God. Something quite beautiful.

A young woman with her daughter pulled up next to me in a worn out but fabulous grey jeep. The sweet brunette with cute bangs did not look that much older than her lovely daughter. She looked at me so excited and gestured for me to roll down my window. The cool thing was this young lady did the "old school" gesture of cranking down my window. She shouts out to me, "I love Neil Young! My dad loved Neil Young!"

"Oh, my God!" My dad loved Neil Young too! And he loved Jeeps. Your jeep is cool, girl!

Her huge smile revealed brilliantly white teeth, and she tells me the Jeep was her dad’s.

"My dad just died last October." she said.

"Aww, honey!" I replied." I am so sorry! What day? I lost my dad on October 16, 2021."

She shares with me her dad passed on October 31, and I responded with genuine interest, "Ah. The thinning of the veil! Harvest Season! And we love Neil Young! "On This Harvest Moon!"

Our excitement was interrupted with mean honking behind us, because, well the light had changed we were oblivious that there was traffic behind us.

From that light to the next, I began bawling. It is easy to make me cry and there I was on the road crying like a 5-year-old.

We found ourselves side by side again at the next stop light. She gestures again to "crank down" my window.

"I Love You!" she said. She said it effortlessly, and the honesty of the words was visceral. The feeling was mutual, and I said, "I love you too!" I felt a little guilty that I was the one crying when her loss was much more recent than mine, but as we know, grief ebbs and flows and we all have our own wave to ride.

This exchange proves that two complete strangers who have no knowledge of each other’s political, or religious affiliations can say and mean to one another, "I Love You!" We knew nothing about each other except that we lost our dad's, and both our dad's loved Neil Young and Jeeps.

Please let us try to simply love one another. Ok. I know I sound like a total hippy, but so what? Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Be as gracious the recipient of love as you would give it to others. I am tired of strong arming my way through all the wrong in the world. The giving and receiving of LOVE without any projections of gaining from others has become a lost art. Daily, I will work to share this love whether it is by spoiling a client or simply smiling at a stranger. The world needs these small actions as much as it needs larger actions of resistance to a loveless and greedy world.