Hello Again From America - 032
“Tragedy can tear apart the lives of any of us, but it can also be what brings us all together..”
From my speech at the Hello Again Conference in South Carolina on the weekend.
To be an Aussie invited to speak at this event is one of the greatest honours of my life. They embraced me with open arms as if I was exactly where I belonged, and within moments I realised that I was. I knew had found a new family - a family that’s been born from our shared pain of grief, and a family that grows from our shared love of honouring children and siblings who left too soon.
Would we rather have not had this in common? Absolutely.
But we do, and we can’t change that.
But we can change whether we use our pain as an excuse to hate on the world, or reason to love on it more.
On whether we victimise ourselves to our trauma, or rise above it by reaching out to those who have suffered similarly and reminding them they are not alone. Amazingly, every single one of the women, men and children who were there have chosen the latter - chosen love. Chosen hope.
Chosen to say “Hello Again” to life.
I can’t tell you how humbled I was to be in the presence of such brave souls. The warmth and joy that radiated from them is something that will stay with me forever.
To learn more about the origins behind the ‘‘Hello Again’’ community, please watch this short tv news story below:
Don’t forget:
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