Every once in awhile a story sweeps across the world like wildfire. This is one of those stories, the true story of 5-year Noah, a boy living with terminal cancer.

It’s one of those stories that opens the hearts of people everywhere, a story that spreads love from the four corners of the earth and brings out people’s greatness.

As I contemplate the loving kindness exhibited in the celebration of Noah’s life, a question churns in my mind: why don’t we do this everyday, with everyone we meet? What if we didn’t wait until near death to honor a person’s life, but did so in each moment?

Of course, it’s relatively easy to do this with people we love. Taking a moment to show gratitude is a great way to thank someone for shining their light on our lives.

But, what about those people who aren’t so easy to love? Can we learn to open our hearts and send them love, too?

For instance, when someone does something we perceive as “horrible” what if we see their behavior as a sort of cancer that is disguising the beautiful soul that dwells within? And what if instead of condemning that person we send them love? How different would the world be?!

It’s easy to send love to a 5-year old boy who is presumably innocent and loving. It’s far more challenging to send love to people we feel have somehow “wronged” us or the world.

But instead of reacting to the “horrible” with more horrible, like hatred, vengeance, or condemnation – all faces of fear – what if we connected with the part of us that is loving and compassionate, and act from that place?

There are many ways we can do this: through a heartfelt smile, hug, complement, or card; by helping someone, through being honest, or sharing random acts of kindness. Even posting a positive “status update” on Facebook can have a lasting and loving impact…and it doesn’t cost anything, but a few seconds of time.

I imagine we all want “world peace.” We may have different ideas of how to get there, but if we learn from Noah and his family’s request to send love in the form of a card, and we start to send a little more love every day, I imagine we can make a global shift toward what we all dream of having: a loving world where people celebrate each other and life on a regular basis, not just in times of crisis.

What do you think? Is it time to make this global shift? I don’t think we can wait much longer.

Maybe together we can grow somewhere even greater!

Here’s Noah’s story:

Five year-old Noah Biorkman is in hospice and we need your help to make this the best Christmas ever by sending him Christmas cards! His family will be celebrating Christmas this weekend.

Noah was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2007, when he was 3 years old. He went into remission, but then relapsed in September 2008. His family is not expecting him to make it to Christmas Day.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/21525126/index.html

Please help fulfill the Biorkman family’s wish to make this the best Christmas ever for Noah. Send a Christmas card to:

For the skeptical, check out Snopes: http://tinyurl.com/yb5bhmh

P.S. Note the date of this post: November 9, 2009. Most of this was made public, from what I can tell, last week.