I’m Linda, the Founder of The Community of Yes. I’m a Nurse, supporting and holding people in their darkest moments; a combination of architect, mountain guide and truth-seeker for my patients.

I love people. Yes, we get on each other’s nerves and behave badly, but for the most part, we are so beautiful and amazing. The things we do and sacrifice out of love and care for one another even though each of us has our own struggles, seem to me the most incredible works of art we each can make – art worthy of hanging on the walls of the Getty.

Only most of these beautiful acts of everyday choices go unseen.

I am a witness
using my life
my voice
my camera
my pen
and my everyday ordinary choices
to proclaim what I have seen,
to tell
of the wonders.

In a hurting and often confusing world where it’s easy to feel powerless, where images of violence fill our media screens and magazine stands, there exists a growing worldwide community who have not forgotten that there is a power greater than political oppression, weapons of war or acts of hatred and dehumanization: the capacity to choose what is good, to choose love and kindness in the everyday, ordinary lives we find ourselves in, and we are committed to doing so. Not only in spite of, but in the midst of our own suffering.

At the lowest moments of life for my patients and for myself, I’ve returned to what I call the Yes movement. We are the ones helping one another find our big Yes’s and to stay focused and on track no matter what. Because it’s hard work. And we need each other.

This community is for people like me, who can get so easily discouraged and forget what this whole human project is about. When I slip into this place, it’s like a sickness. I become desperate for the cure: to be able to see again. To see signs which help me remember.

Lord, make me a flashlight
a floodlight
a fire
to help others see
there is another way to live.

Saying Yes matters. No matter how hard our particular circumstances are, and how little we can make sense of it, it matters to keep choosing Life. To keep saying Yes.

One person at a time, this is how we change the world.

My greatest hope is to see you go out and start to write, to film, to live your own Yes-to-Life stories.

You are the people I’m celebrating. You are the people who remind me why I hang in there when I feel like giving up, who remind me that being human is a process we learn, and that we become more fully human every time we choose what fosters Life.

Think of this website as an exhibit of living portraits, a collection and celebration of stories which remind us of our humanity. The exhibit contains and curates the work of many artists and will include the work of the team I collaborate with. It is a work in progress, but the doors are wide open. All are invited to come in, to gaze, to feast, to behold, and to remember.

Blessings,
Linda