Re-gifting love.

Old habits die hard. As long as I've had an email address, I've been a Yahoo! user. Yahoo!, is known for many things. Ok, maybe just one. That annoying little yodeling jingle. You know the one. Other than that, Gmail smokes Yahoo!. But what can I say, I'm loyal.

In light of this awareness, I confess that I still have Yahoo! as my homepage and Yahoo! News is my first (not main, but first) source of headline scanning.

Today, it's this one that gets my attention and heart.

It's the story of a boy in the Philippines who by age 2 was alone, homeless and living in the garbage slums. By age 6, he'd experienced more pain, trauma, greif, and despair than many of us ever will. By providence, he experienced what home should feel like for the first time. And for the first time, at age 7, he was able to celebrate a birthday that was actually full of joy, gifts and love.

Birthdays are one of the few things that celebrate who you are. You don't earn a birthday. Even if you're a jerk, you still get a birthday.

If anyone deserves to have a me-centered birthday, it's this little boy. But in this three minute video, you quickly realize that once you experience real love, you want to give love. Once you've experienced desperation, you want others to know what freedom feels like.  

When giving Kesz Valdez the Children's Peace Prize, Desmond Tutu mentioned how 'young people show the incredible resilience of the human spirit.' What potential lies in our playgrounds, sunday schools, garbage slums? 

Never doubt what one can accomplish when given the freedom, opportunity and encouragement to do so. May we capture the essence of selfless love, like Kesz, and re-gift that love without abandon.