Hi! Let me introduce myself. I’m Carol; some call me CC.
I am white, and with that comes inherent privilege.
My guiding values: LOVE, kindness, compassion, and peace.
I admire and strive to be like Mr. Rogers, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Bryan Stevenson, and more.
I smile a lot. I laugh a lot. I try and cheer people up a lot. My mission is to help heighten celebrations and lessen sorrow by having a positive focus.
While I LOVE life and believe it to be precious, I do not believe it is rainbows and unicorns. I see the messiness, I try to do better, and I focus on creating peaceful solutions. I am grateful for the beauty that exists. I am grateful for the helpers that come out during tragedy. I focus on gratitude.
I call myself a kindness coach, peace activator, and hugger.
Kindness coach: teach kindness within as I believe if you feel heard and you believe you matter, you are far less likely to harm yourself or others.
Peace activator: to activate peace within yourself and thus bring it forward to the bigger world.
Hugger: is one of my favorite ways to remind people they matter in the world. Touch is so important, and free hugs truly changed my life. I was not a hugger until January 2008. I have witnessed its power hundreds of times.
My LOVE doesn’t have conditions, but my participation does. I LOVE all AND then choose who I share my time, energy, and heart with.
I believe in AND rather than or. I live life on a scale of 0 (worst case unkindness) to 100 (best case kindness), and I do my best to stay above 80. I rarely go below 50, but I am sure I have.
My heart gets hurt, I get angry/furious, sad, unworthy, feel my feelings, and then do what I can, with what I have, from where I am to focus on LOVING and peaceful solutions.
I rarely cuss, but I don’t care if others do. If the f-bomb comes out of my mouth, I am on hurt overload. I have good friends who bring me back to peace.
When I see police officers on the street, I thank them for their service, I volunteer for the Cook County Sheriff’s office, AND police brutality is unacceptable.
Deep reform needs to occur.
I don’t care for the words always or never – absolutes rarely work for me. Perfection is another one. I’ve never met a perfect person, and I am certainly not perfect.
On my LOVE hat, you see a safety pin. Since Trump became the president, it has been there to show support for marginalized communities under attack by his presidency and followers. I will continue to wear it as long as it’s needed.
LOVE, kindness, compassion, and peace will continue to be my guiding values, AND that includes my belief in consequences and justice. I don’t get it right all the time. I continue to learn how I can become a better ally.
I state this not for kudos but to make it clear that my ‘positive focus’ in no way means I don’t believe in consequences. Consequences are part of healing, and without it, it might be a bandaid, but it isn’t healing.
I believe in being a lighthouse, and lighthouses see the storm and stand strong and tall through them.
I believe in Unity, forgiveness, learning, and moving forward. And that starts with those who incited and carried out the insurrection at the US Capitol face serious consequences. LOVE doesn’t give hate a get-out-of-jail-free card.
I LOVE you.
