A Human Love Story - a compelling audio collection of love stories gathered from around the world.  Stories of connection, of identity, of belonging.

These stories express our shared human endeavour to love and connect in every continent on this beautiful earth. Our love stories are global tales from our worldly family. 

A Human Love Story takes me walking as a pilgrim, seeking hospitality where it is offered, meeting people where they are; on the path, in the street, around the corner, in prison, in church, on the towpath.  We share our love stories together, recording these emotive and powerful human experiences and bringing them to the public all around the world through this online audio archive.

This project began in 2012 as An English Love Story but has now grown and expanded to A Human Love Story. The walking journeys are set to reach out into Europe and beyond: beyond borders and divides.  The work will delve deeper into the lives of the outsiders, the asylum seekers, the refugees, those in prison and on the outskirts of our societies. We will be sharing loving stories that explore what we have in common, until we recognise ourselves in the stranger, so we can connect and be compassionate.  So we become less strange to one another:  Until We All Have Faces.   

A Human Love Story is all about sharing; our lives, our experiences, our humanity.  I believe in facilitating encounters where people can connect deeply, feel safe, tell their story, be heard, and discuss matters of the heart, wherever and in whatever way that conversation may find its form.  Through these sharings we help to nurture 'true community', connecting people deeply with their emotional and spiritual self, with other people and with the place they live in.  The sharing of these stories together becomes an act of connection, something that can transform and continue the world. A act of re-membering that allows us to re-vision the world and begin the process of social reclamation.

An essential tool of the project is the journeying; by foot, as a pilgrim. Since 2012 I have walked over 1000 miles. I walk, carrying only a simple bag and stick. I explore the idea of hospitality, the stranger, the guest. I present individuals and communities with the opportunity to extend hospitality in a variety of ways.  How do we respond to the stranger in our community, at our front door?  What does that tell us about our community and the way in which we communally express love? What is the importance of a smile? An open hand? Through walking I enter a place stripped of my possessions and status, open to an open encounter, gently arriving, quietly leaving, unencumbered and free to meet people where they are.

Simon Jackson o. is following