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To Write Love on Her Arms
To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.
VISION:
The vision is that we actually believe these things…
You were created to love and be loved. You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you're part of a bigger story. You need to know that your life matters.
We live in a difficult world, a broken world. My friend Byron is very smart - he says that life is hard for most people most of the time. We believe that everyone can relate to pain, that all of us live with questions, and all of us get stuck in moments. You need to know that you're not alone in the places you feel stuck.
We all wake to the human condition. We wake to mystery and beauty but also to tragedy and loss. Millions of people live with problems of pain. Millions of homes are filled with questions – moments and seasons and cycles that come as thieves and aim to stay. We know that pain is very real. It is our privilege to suggest that hope is real, and that help is real.
You need to know that rescue is possible, that freedom is possible, that God is still in the business of redemption. We're seeing it happen. We're seeing lives change as people get the help they need. People sitting across from a counselor for the first time. People stepping into treatment. In desperate moments, people calling a suicide hotline. We know that the first step to recovery is the hardest to take. We want to say here that it's worth it, that your life is worth fighting for, that it's possible to change.
Beyond treatment, we believe that community is essential, that people need other people, that we were never meant to do life alone.
The vision is that community and hope and help would replace secrets and silence.
The vision is people putting down guns and blades and bottles.
The vision is that we can reduce the suicide rate in America and around the world.
The vision is that we would learn what it means to love our friends, and that we would love ourselves enough to get the help we need.
The vision is better endings. The vision is the restoration of broken families and broken relationships. The vision is people finding life, finding freedom, finding love. The vision is graduation, a Super Bowl, a wedding, a child, a sunrise. The vision is people becoming incredible parents, people breaking cycles, making change.
The vision is the possibility that your best days are ahead.
The vision is the possibility that we're more loved than we'll ever know.
The vision is hope, and hope is real.
You are not alone, and this is not the end of your story.
BEGIN:
This began as an attempt to tell a story and a way to help a friend in Spring 2006. The story and the life it represented were both things of contrast – pain and hope, addiction and sobriety, regret and the possibility of freedom. The story’s title “To Write Love on Her Arms” was also a goal, believing that a better life was possible. We started selling t-shirts as a way to pay for our friend’s treatment, and we made a MySpace page to give the whole thing a home. Our friends in Switchfoot and Anberlin were among the first to wear these shirts. In the days that followed, we learned quickly that the story we were telling represented people everywhere. We began to hear from people in need of help, and others asking what they could do to help their friends. We heard from people who had lost loved ones to suicide. Many said that these were questions they had never asked and parts of their story that they had never shared. Others were honest in a different way, confessing these were issues they knew little or nothing about. It seemed we had stumbled upon a bigger story, and a conversation that needed to be had.
Over the last two and a half years, we’ve responded to 80,000 messages from people in 40 different countries. We’ve had the opportunity to bring this conversation, and a message of hope and help, to concerts, universities, festivals and churches. We’ve learned that these are not American issues, not white issues or “emo” issues. These are issues of humanity, problems of pain that affect millions of people around the world.
We’ve learned that two out of three people who struggle with depression never seek help, and that untreated depression is the leading cause of suicide. In America alone, it’s estimated that 19 million people live with depression, and suicide is the third-leading cause of death among those 18-24 years old.
The good news is that depression is very treatable, that a very real hope exists in the face of these issues. We’ve met people who are getting the help they need, sitting across from a counselor for the first time, stepping into treatment, or reaching out to a suicide hotline in a desperate moment.
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粤「久久久」结婚潮掀蜜月游
2008年8月8日恰逢是京奥开幕的日子，全国一共有数10万对新人选择在当日喜结良缘，更创下历史纪录；今年是双春兼润月的好年，2009年9月9日合乎中国人「长长久久」的寓意，在广州，选择在「久久久」预约结婚的新人比去年的「发发发」更有过之而无不及，从而带旺旅游业借机推出蜜月游、旅行结婚等 的套餐，因应一轮的结婚潮，掀起一股蜜月游热潮！
一个完整的婚礼过程必须是宴席加上蜜月旅游，这曾经是上一代人心中对理想婚礼的定义；然而随着时代的进步，新一代的年轻人对于传统的繁锁礼节的中式婚礼大多感到烦厌，不少人都会选择旅行结婚「一切从简」，加上今年又适逢「结婚年」，广州不少的旅行社都纷纷推出蜜月旅游的路线，范围涵盖境内 、外多个蜜月胜地，深圳侨城、大溪地、宿雾、布吉、北海道，甚至再远至爱琴海均成为首推的路线。
据业内人士透露，为了加深一对新人结婚及蜜月旅游的浪漫回忆，行程的设计、入住的酒店均需经过精心挑选，他们会在高级的酒店或度假村内布置好新人的蜜月套房，如赠送红酒、小礼物及花瓣铺床的布置。据估计，旅行结婚兼度蜜月将会更备受年轻人的追捧，羊城市民又正兴起旅行结婚的风气，预计这种 新兴的结婚蜜月市场将会越来越庞大。
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