Divine Love (2019) Full Movie Online
Karola
Just as how naturally occurring water runs forcefully or peacefully through a valley. How awesome is it to be blessed with sight or the opportunity to feel or even hear these running waters? How divine is it to majestically witness the grandeur of this naturally occurring experience? An experience that not only offers itself to us as human beings in its wondrous display, but somehow it also simultaneously works to be in symbiotic union with everything in its environment. How lucky, how fortunate, it is for the grass, trees, animals, and sea creatures to somehow seamlessly meet the water that runs through the valley, staged at times with peaks that softly penetrate the bluest of skies. How harmonious is the perfect pitch that is not orchestrated by our most superior, talented, and gifted beings in all parts of the Earth? It is a musical recital that none of us conduct though it instantly reminds and forces us to reckon with our Highest Power, a power that innately feels omnipotent in all things.
Again, both of my grandmas were born in 1927. They had different birth origins though similar livelihoods within a culture of oppressive systems, love for the Earth and being in harmony with the land, and tremendous faith in God, which guided their hearts, minds, and spirits as they stepped out on faith for their selves and our family.
Though titled differently and sung with different harmonies and melodies, both mirrored the same message giving all honor to God in recognition that there is nobody greater than God. Both songs offered inspiration and personal testimony to their life stories and how they choose to preserve through life with God.
An experience that could be viewed celestially in the manner that the stars aligned when the union of our families divinely occurred. A union where their rich histories of faith, challenges, triumph, and love taught us, guided, and showered all of us with wisdom. They have offered so many life lessons that I will always cherish, and they will serve as a guide in countless ways: what a loving gift, a priceless and lovingly rich gift.
It is an experience that subjects and objects the marginalized while others implicitly or forcefully turn their gaze, choosing not to acknowledge or cultivate these differences. The tireless web of these intersecting socio-cultural factors can be endless if we consider nationalistic, political, racial, economic, gender, sexuality, faith, and spiritual variables that we all embody. Despite these differences, there is already a naturally occurring remedy within us if we are willing to connect the source to unify and support all.
It would be marvelous if we all unified through love and extend love to one another. The action of love is by seeing, hearing, acknowledging, and supporting others with love. The love of letting pride, fear, inhibitions, anxieties intentionally stop for the incomparable gain of love. Betting, taking the risk to choose and operate in love because of the lovingly gains. God has freely given us love, so who are we not to freely offer the same love compassionately to others?
We all witness the kind of naturally occurring love as the river flows through the valley, carefully hugging each part of the river bend and effortlessly working in harmony. This is the form of love I believe can be healing and transformative in our society and our world.
Lessons from my paternal grandmother the lessons from a dollar bill. Every Sunday, she always pushed a dollar in my hand with guidance to place it on the collection plate at our church. It was a wealthy lesson that taught me that even with a dollar, it could be stretched to support so many when we collectively do our part in the service of others.
There is no coincidence that love is already a remedying gift within us. Love is a mutual experience. Are you willing to offer the love that is already innate within you to others as well? God is love and God lives in all of us which is not a coincidence and should prompt us to recognize divine love within us and extend it to others.
On February 27, 2017, our son Mac joined the team at Gary Sinise Foundation as our Assistant Manager of Education & Outreach. I was thrilled and excited to have him come on board to help me with the mission. His job duties included handling and digitizing our Gary Sinise Foundation archive and managing our Education & Outreach Center, which included hosting events, giving tours, stewarding donors, and outreach with the military service members, veterans, first responders and families who were recipients of our support. With his engaging and upbeat personality, he inspired folks through our Gary Sinise: A Call-to-Action exhibit in the Education & Outreach Center, and he assisted in everyday activities, and local and national events also. As a father, having him as part of the Foundation was a gift. He was a great representative who cared about the mission and those we serve, and I was eager to watch him grow with the organization.
I was always happy to have him join me on the road, and I could see how much joy and pride he shared in our mission. Especially when he could be hands-on with those we serve, like at our Soaring Valor events honoring our nation's WWII heroes, and our Invincible Spirit Festivals, where we bring the Lt. Dan Band to uplift our wounded at military hospitals across the country.
Mac had been playing drums since he was nine years old and was an exceptional drummer. He would substitute for my drummer, Danny Gottlieb, when Danny was unavailable to play our Lt. Dan Band shows. Those were some great times, father and son rockin' out together for the troops.
The summer of 2018 was a particularly challenging time for our family. In June of that year, my wife Moira was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, and after surgery to remove lymph nodes, she began chemotherapy and radiation. Then, on August 8th, we found out that Mac was diagnosed with a very rare cancer called Chordoma. What was happening? What is Chordoma? I had never heard of this. And two cancer patients, mother and son, within two months of each other? A real punch in the gut. I went online to see what I could find. Chordoma is a one in a million cancer. Originating in the spine, Chordoma affects, on average, only 300 people in the U.S. per year. In 70% of the cases the initial tumor can be removed, and it is cured. But in 30% of the cases, perhaps about 90 people per year, the cancer returns.
Thankfully, after months of treatment, Moira went into remission and has been cancer-free ever since. With Mac, after surgery to remove the initial tumor in September of 2018, and another spine procedure in February 2019 to clear what looked like an infection, unfortunately a follow up scan in May of 2019 would show that his Chordoma had come back and was spreading. This began a long battle that disabled him more and more as time went on. The cancer fight was getting harder, but throughout most of 2019 he was still able to come to the GSF office, until a third spine surgery in November of that year.
While in recovery at home, he was still eager to contribute to the Foundation and he was excited to launch our Gary Sinise Foundation podcast. He was just getting started, completing two interviews, the first with our Gary Sinise Foundation video producer Kip Perry, and the second with yours truly. In January of 2020, the day before he went in for his 4th spine surgery, Mac and I sat down together for his GSF podcast interview with me. This would finish his work with Gary Sinise Foundation. That year, he knew he had to step away to fight his battle. He would have to focus full-time on recovery and rehab, as there would be a fifth spine surgery in June, along with radiation and continuing chemotherapy.
Mac picked a date to record when he knew his sister Sophie was going to be in town. The session was scheduled for July 17, 2023, at the very famous Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. He financed the session with his own money, and Oliver and his father, legendary recording engineer and producer Bill Schnee, hired the contractor who pulled together some of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles. Bill lent his services on the mixing board. (Thank you, Bill).
Like any family experiencing such a loss, we are heartbroken and have been managing as best we can. As parents, it is so difficult losing a child. My heart goes out to all who have suffered a similar loss, and to anyone who has lost a loved one. We've all experienced it in some way. Over the years I have met so many families of our fallen heroes. It's heartbreaking, and it's just damn hard. Our family's cancer fight lasted for 5 years, and it became more and more challenging as time went on. While our hearts ache at missing him, we are comforted in knowing that Mac is no longer struggling, and inspired and moved by how he managed it. He fought an uphill battle against a cancer that has no cure, but he never quit trying. Mac loved movies, and we always told him he reminded us of the soldier at the end of the extraordinary film 1917, running through the battlefield, bombs going off all around him, knocking him down one after the other, yet he keeps getting back up, refusing to quit and keeps running forward.
I had not spoken publicly about Mac's challenging fight until this recent interview with Raymond Arroyo, done live on December 29, 2023. But in the interview, while I mention his health challenges, leaving out the details, you will see the focus is on Mac and his inspirational music, all put together during those final months of his life, as he was always focusing on what he could do, and never on what he couldn't. Mac was living out a dream, bringing it to reality with his collaborating partner, Oliver. It was incredibly motivating and therapeutic for him, and he was so excited to see it all come together. I did this interview live in a satellite truck they had sent to the house. While I was sitting in the truck doing the interview in the driveway, Mac and Moira were inside the house watching. When I was finished, I walked into the house and Mac was just beaming. Smiling ear to ear, so happy to see his music being featured on national television.
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