Jeanne Malnati & Family
In the summer of 2010 my youngest daughter Melissa chose to do her college photojournalism project in South Africa. She spent 5 weeks there, captured the lives and hearts of 250 children as they ate their only meal of the day at an organization called Kuyasa, located in a poverty stricken township outside Cape Town. My oldest daughter Kelsey and I were to travel there to pick Melissa up and then explore the country together.
At the last minute I threw a small bag of hearts into my suitcase. I didn’t know why. En-route to South Africa I began to think about these hearts that I'd brought along. What did they mean to me? What could they mean to others? The more I thought about it, the more I felt a nudge that my daughters and myself were to randomly give a small pewter heart to individuals as we were led. The girls were all for the idea. And so we did.
When a person was put on our heart we would say to them something to the effect of, “This is for you.” We’d place a heart in the palm of their hand and share (in just a few words) why we were moved to give one to them. “You have a beautiful heart, and it touched mine." Or, “This is to remind you that you are loved.” Or, “I appreciate you. Thank you.”
Each of the 13 hearts we gave out had a story more precious than the other. The looks that came over people’s faces, the tears that welled up and trickled down cheeks, the responses of utter delight, surprise and gratefulness touched our hearts deeply. We’re not sure who was blessed more – the receiver or us, the givers.
We flew back to Chicago agreeing – we must continue to spread hearts! To date over 41 thousand hearts have been spread around the world. And that is only a drop in the bucket. We have great hope that love will continue to be spread, from one heart to another.
We have experienced great joy in disrupting a moment and doing this random act of spreading love. To see a person out of the blue and acknowledge them for simply just being themselves is powerful. Love changes everything.
