This is where it all started.

Before Love Wins was a full blown movement, I used it in the games i worked at the carnival.

I worked in the games helping people win teddy bears. Every day, I would hear adults tell children that they wouldn't be able to win before they had even tried. and it didn't sit right with me.

So I started doing something different. I promised them that they would win if they did exactly what I told them to do . i showed them how to use the cork gun sights. How to throw darts to pop balloons. it was simple if they only pay attention. Trust themselves. And try again.

And when couples or families stepped up together, I would tell them that since LOVE was present it was a guaranteed winner. Because Love Always Wins that there was no way they could possibly lose.

That idea stayed with me long after the carnival lights went dark.

When people would ask what i did for a living, i would tell them that I gave people the tools to help them win... at life.

Because it was more about confidence, positive expectation, faith, determination, connection, and proving that somebody else's pessimism did not get to decide the outcome?

That became part of the foundation of Love Wins Era: more love, more kindness, more grace, more understanding, and more people willing to help each other win.

What does it mean for love to win?

Love winning doesn't mean letting everything slide.

Sometimes love looks soft.

Sometimes it looks like compassion, patience, forgiveness, connection, generosity, or grace.

And sometimes love looks like a boundary. An honest conversation. Accountability. Walking away. Admitting you were wrong. Refusing to abandon yourself to keep somebody else comfortable. Choosing not to repeat something simply because it is familiar.

Love doesn't require pretending anger, grief, consequences, disappointment, or difficult truths don't exist.

It asks something harder: Now that you know, that love can change the game, that it could be applied almost anywhere, and if you just made the choice to use it, you could win. And who doesn't like winning.