What if little girls and little boys around the world connected and slept with one another’s toys?  What affection, what tenderness, what grace would we achieve?!

My friend asked me about Okello Kelo Sam, former child soldier speaking to our Kelowna audience.  She wondered if it was appropriate to bring her 8-year old daughter.  She imagined the details of his story were likely horrifying.  I asked her, “How does your daughter sleep?  Does she frighten easily?”

But life has such a funny way of teaching me such wondrous lessons of softening, opening, connecting, without fear.  I’m so humbled.

Okello is my friend.  He is my brother.  He is wise beyond words.  He connects with everyone he meets authentically and without pretense.  He is a man who carries the weight of providing for and educating over 250 students in Northern Uganda at Hope North with an effervescent lightness and joy that is unquenchable!

What happened next is simply sensational!  My friend, a parent at my school, brought her daughter to see Okello speak.  The little innocent connected with Africa, (not to mention SunFM‘s Kevin and Sonia) with eagerness.  She drank up sameness across continents, generations, and incomparable life experiences.  She viscerally knew the kindness and warmth that Okello shares in a smile.  Purpose achieved.

A Kelowna global citizen was born in the #joyfulconnection!

Her heart so stirred, with the dreaminess of childhood, she hummed and drummed herself to sleep.

If we all could wrap our arms around humanity?  If we all could accept and cherish with abandon?  If we all could delight in the rhythm of life?  If the learning went beyond the classroom and into the world?  What a #joyfulconnection it would be!

Please support Hope North through the Mary-Louise Parker online auction at Omaze.com.  I promise it is a #joyfulconnection!