The Story Behind LoveYou2.Org

That first LoveYou2 sign went untouched on the fridge for several days.  Then one morning, I glanced at the sign and it took my breath away. The LoveYou2 sign seemed to have metamorphosed from a message BY me into a message TO me. It was as if I could hear my grandma's voice over the landline's strained long-distance connection greeting me from another decade, “i love you, too!” I was immediately overwhelmed with deep feelings of contentment, security, warmth, and a huge smile. I pulled the first tab from the sign and tucked it into my purse as I went out the door.

In the days following, the remaining tabs were pulled.  One by one, the tabs became bookmarks, an “I'm sorry” after a cross word, a thank-you for a kind deed, or a good-bye token for a friend. Each tab invoked a different sensation or memory. One time it was a hug from my mom.  Other times the tab became a hope or a sweet nod from a friend.

Summer 2010

Summer 2010 delivered adventures big and small. Along with learning to surf, trying a new restaurant, and running to the highest point in the city I wrote on my summer “to try” list “post-LoveYou2 signs”. I printed a stack of signs and kept them in the car, along with push pins and a roll of tape. The LoveYou2 message quickly went renegade as we posted them around the city or places we visited. Arriving a few minutes early to meet friends meant time to find the next LoveYou2 location. My kids and I would secretly post the sign, giggle, and sneak away. The experience was fun and unexpected - slightly magical.

One afternoon, I was driving alone in a sleepy beach town.  I parked in front of the only store in town and stepped onto the wood-planked porch. When my eyes glimpsed a community bulletin board with advertisements for local gigs and art shows, I returned to the car and grabbed a LoveYou2 flier.

I'd never seen a tab go missing outside of my own kitchen.  My heart stopped.  No, my heart exploded.  Maybe my heart started singing.  I don't know how to explain how my heart was working except that I'd never felt that feeling before. Ecstatic? Amazed? If the English language has a word for how I felt, I do not know what it is. I glanced around the one block of Main Street, searching for who might have pulled the tab, but there was no one in sight. Someone had been on their way into the store as I was leaving - had that person pulled the tab? Had it been a man? A woman? A teen?

I walked the few steps to my car, sat down in the driver's seat, left the door open and mused.  I felt like I was alive inside a Mary Oliver poem.  I could not stop wondering what the sign had meant to the one who pulled the tab.  What was the message for them?  What did they do with the tab? Where were they now?  Would they tell someone about it? Or was it the kind of message they would keep close?  Did they love this as much as I did, or was it just me? In these musing moments life felt more vivid.

It had never before occurred to me how others might experience the LoveYou2 sign.  It had simply felt good - truly good - to hang them up. It felt playful and fun. But, actually knowing a stranger pulled a tab felt divine.

Near the end of the summer, a friend was in our kitchen and commented on the LoveYou2 sign on the refrigerator.  He then said, “You should start a website.”

Fall 2010

The website idea just wouldn't disappear. It visited me as I fell asleep, drove carpool, worked out - the idea became my buddy and made its way on the 'must do' list.  My friend's idea sparked a dream that I released into the universe - or at least into the World Wide Web - with this website.

I'm incredibly inspired by possibility.  So I wonder:  What is the collective effect of 100 people having their breath taken away?  Or of 200 people feeling hugged?  What is the ripple effect of giving small tabs of love, anonymously?  Just thinking about these possibilities makes my heart start to sing.

I launched LoveYou2 as a blog in November 2010 with the purpose of giving away the original LoveYou2 flier for others to hang up and share their stories. Clicking “publish this blog” felt like the scary, nakedest truth I’d known in years. And so began a magical journey which became a way of living; a passion for finding, documenting, installing and sharing love notes.

Spring 2011

I took a street art stenciling class at WorkshopSF from San Francisco-based stencil artist Jeremy Novy. I started cutting my first stencils in cereal box cardboard and spray painting wood love note signs to hang on fences.

Sometimes, when I am hanging a poster or wood sign or share the blog with someone new they ask, “But what are you trying to do?”

“I’m giving away love,” I reply.  But I realize it’s actually much more than that.

I saw Billy Bragg in concert.  During his show, he said the greatest threat to progress was cynicism. Not the cynicism of our leaders, or of political parties, but our own cynicism.  He told the crowd, “I go around singing to bring people hope.”  Billy Bragg attained hero status to me in that moment.  

What can I do to bring people hope? I have an abundance of love in my life, and the LoveYou2 message.  It is important to me that LoveYou2 is free, easy, accessible and appeals to a variety of people. I enjoy watching someone’s face light up when they know exactly what they are going to do with their sign. Or they snap a photo of a found wood sign as they pass by. I wonder where these thousands of tabs or photos are hung, tucked or kept for reminding.

I know that simply living in this vibrant world and being conscious of current events puts us in frequent contact with stories of tragedy, divisive messages, and marketing that sells unattainable perfection.  While these negative elements compete for our attention and shift our focus, there is something else I know – Love is Louder.  

Spring 2012

With a few years of renegade love note installations and lots of messages from strangers, I recognized the need to make it easier for people to engage, easier to write love notes.  After my brother’s untimely death with so many people sharing wonderful memories of my brother at the funeral, I wondered what would have happened had these sentiments been shared when he was alive.

Summer 2012

I spent Summer 2012 at TechShopSF where, with the aid of computer software and the laser cutter (shazam!), I created a stack of stencils with many of my LoveYou2 sayings. I want to marry TechshopSF! Every person I met at Techshop asked me “What do you make?” (instead of “where do you work?” or “where did you go to school?”) then listened with respect and awe at my ideas, offering suggestions for improved production. This is mind-blowing potential for an emerging artist and changed how I constructed a view of myself in the world. I make, therefore I am. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Now

I don’t think that the LoveYou2 signs will end war. We still need to stock our food banks and teach everyone to read. There are vaccines to be developed. Justice is not universal. There is real, important, critical work to be done. But I do believe that hope is a rallying call and sustaining for those working to make the world a better place.  

Sometimes it takes a little love to pull on the marching boots one more time. Of course, it is love when we take a deep breath and say from our heart, “I am so very sorry.” With love can come the acceptance we are seeking for ourselves or for others – the kind of love that fills up space so that there is no room left for hate. A little hope, a little love can inspire one to do more, to try again, to believe that change is possible, or remind us why, in fact, we do this work at all. 

How will you share the love? What would love have you do?

Thank you for joining me in changing the world one love note at a time.