so, today’s post has me smiling, laughing and feeling warm & fuzzy inside, as their stories jog my own memories of first kisses, true love, the in-between, the after, and those who hold us close to get us through it all.

last night we launched the love exhibition, capturing some of your favourite images of love… i.LOVE.it.
and today we follow up by getting closer and exposing some of the feelings behind the beautiful images we see. we invited writer, kaci hamilton to lead some intimate interviews in a way only she can.

well, no more talking from me, instead…

from the heart of gina may
love is my big beautiful family

my love sound track would include …
“you’re all I need” mary j blige + method man
“throne of gold” steel pulse
“ain’t no sunshine” bill withers
“soul thang” brady o’connor
“ready for love” india.arie
“better together” jack johnson
“love of my life” dave matthews

my first kiss ... hmmm *chuckle*

my perfect date involves…barefoot, sand in my toes, yummy food in my belly and laughter + music floating on the breeze

the first time i saw my husband I …let my hair loose and was head banging to puff daddy’s “it’s all about the benjamin’s (rock remix)”. in my defense i thought he was there to check someone else so he really got the uncensored unabridged version… apparently through all that flying hair he saw something he liked.

we finish each other’s …haagen dazs

my children make me ...*deep breath* *sigh* depends on the time of day + the day of the week – in turns renew my faith in the potential of the future, remind me how to be free + let it all hang out, gasp, swear, experience immeasurable joy + amazement, tired, laugh, want the world to be a better place, just be.

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from the heart of cezar
the first time i held my daughter… i prayed. gave God thanks. i didn’t do the customary crying, it was more important to pray at that point.

my love soundtrack would include…

nat king cole, he has a song, “je vous aime beaucoup”. that’s definitely up there
curtis mayfield “i’m so proud”
bob marley “turn your lights down low”
sade “by your side”

my first kiss…was pretty enjoyable; it was very enjoyable actually. i was very young.
it was my last summer after prep school. and it kinda happened unexpectedly, but it was a great experience. it happened at a house up in the hills that we really weren’t supposed to be at, where we had been walking along a road. we ventured onto a property, to this day I don’t know whose it was, but the place looked like it was abandoned. but we strayed onto the property and sat down on a hillside overlooking the city. these people actually had canons on their property and we were sitting on a canon. i don’t remember how it happened, because there was nothing that led up to it.

it kinda just came out of the blue. it only happened one time with that person, but i guess the setting was right.

favourite jamaican romantic hideaway…portland. geejam. you just feel like you’re nestled in the midst of paradise. you have a very tangible connection to nature and to God, it’s a simple thing but it’s also very powerful at the same time.

i’m always telling my love she is…beautiful, in the true sense of the word, not necessarily just physically, but inwardly. beautiful, and appreciated.

we finish each other’s…you know what? i tend to finish her food. i don’t like wasting food.

what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for love? i used to walk to and from one of my first girlfriend’s house…at all hours, when it was raining, sunny… i would literally walk over at 3, 4 in the morning, in the rain, just to get to see her. i would walk for half an hour, or an hour, just to see her for five minutes.

love means…unconditional acceptance. giving as much of yourself as is possible, whether that is in the form of emotional or physical or tangible ways. Basically, sharing who you are with someone else, and accepting who someone else really is and taking them into your heart.

 

michelle and suzanne…two sisters…two friends

from the heart of suzanne
she’s the only person in the world that…understands all elements of who i am.

she has to be there when… i would say whenever i have any big event in my life. it’s kind of hard, i think it would have to be for everything.

the craziest thing I’ve done for her is…hired a male stripper on her 18th birthday in florida with all my grandparents, great-aunts and relatives, and had him strip to barely, well actually nothing and had him gyrate on my grandmother, which absolutely humiliated her and all of my friends.

i know she’s lying when…she gets flushed red in her face and her chest, and she has a paranoid look in her eye.

we finish each other’s… shopping lists. whenever we go shopping, we always end up getting the same thing or buying each other the exact same things as presents.

she colours everything with… with love, actually.

from the heart of michelle
she’s the only person in the world that…is so honest in everything that she says. that sees truth in situations and people, and she speaks an honesty that sometimes offends people because they’re not prepared for it, but she’s the only person i know that has the ability to see with such clarity, right to the core of matters and calls it as she sees it.

she colours everything with…joy, and zest for life and happiness and a great sense of humour. she loves to laugh, everything in her life that happens she makes it into fun.

i know she’s lying when...she starts speaking really fast, and sort of blusters, i don’t know what the word for that would be, sort of stumbles over her words.

we finish each other’s…wardrobes. basically, if i don’t have something and she has it, then she’ll say, “well, you take this.” we can’t wear each other’s shoes, but anything to do with make-up or jewellery or whatever, yeah, definitely.

she has to be there when… i need emotional support, or if i’m down.

the craziest thing i’ve ever done for her is… well, i can’t think of anything crazy that i’ve done for her. we’ve done lots of crazy things together for sure.

when we were young, i was about six or seven and she was nine, we were in england for the summer and we ran away. we were asking if we could camp out and we were told by our parents that we weren’t allowed. we decided that we had to live this life of adventure, so we didn’t care what they said. so we went into the room and we packed up our clothes in heaps and threw them out the window, hid the bicycles in the bushes.

it was the summer in suffolk in the countryside, and when evening came, we told our mother to go upstairs because she had to look for something in the closet, and we took off on the bikes and high-tailed it and rode like five miles down the road, and camped out and hid for half an hour and then came back to sleep out in a hut near the house. our mother, who would have none of it, came out and pretended to be a rolling calf and scared us half to death, so we had to run in the middle of the night. that was pretty wild. i thought that i was attacked by a rolling calf for about ten years of my life. we stole out the hobnobs and the blue cheese and the stilton, and took the teddy bear and the nightie and set up camp.

we left a note! we said to them, “this is something we have to do. we are sorry, but we are running away! but you’ll find us in the shed in the morning.” we had some wild summers there in england when we were young, and that was one of them.

 

i hope you have enjoyed this moment as much as we have….please feel free to share your stories with us too by commenting on the blog.

more love,

kaci hamilton is a writer and communications consultant with a travel addiction. if the ticket is for an economy aisle seat ride to greenland on the 2nd of February – with layovers – she’ll be there, no questions asked. she does have an affinity for writing in general, and maybe one day you’ll be at a barnes and noble and she’ll be asking who to make it out to. for now, she’s working her way through life one writing gig at a time and waiting for the next chance to return her tray table to the upright and locked position. check out her blog at www.kacihamilton.blogspot.com.