In a heartfelt message posted on YouTube on April 6, Islamorada Fire Rescue Department’s Mikey Hampson reaches out to everyone during these “unprecedented times.”
Hampson notes that everyone is experiencing struggle and strife, whether mental, physical, financial or all three. The first responder implores his audience not to lose hope and to remember, “You are never alone.”
He continues, urging everyone to lean into love instead of fear and to allow the former to guide us. “When we allow love to be a role model during these trying times,” Hampson says, “we can bring light out of this darkness. We can bring hope out of this despair. And yeah, we may be having to keep a 6-foot distance and we may be quarantining and distancing ourselves from one another, but that doesn’t have to stop us from speaking words of positivity, from giving someone a smile, from doing random acts of kindness that will lift our brothers and sisters up.”
He reminds us that random acts of love and kindness have far greater impact than we can ever imagine. The same goes for withheld acts of love; no one can predict or know the impact of either.
Hampson ends with a gentle suggestion when we are faced with hard choices. “Ask yourself, how would love handle this situation? Open your heart. Know that you are loved. And let’s just live love out loud.”
Thank you for your service to the community, Mikey, and your love.
Watch the full video here.
