This week Awesome Stories takes a look at love in action, changing rivers, kindness and communicating with whales. Hold on tight for a wild ride!

The Love Warrior

Raghu Makwana has been called the “love warrior” for his amazing dedication to service, despite his own challenges in life. After polio at an early age, Raghu lost his legs. Instead of falling into despair, he became a model of faith and service. Raghu touched many others through his unwavering faith in ‘The One Above’ or ‘Upar Wala‘. He believed and lived his call to be of service to all he could. Read about his amazing story in this Daily Good article.

Wolves Changing the Rivers!

At first I thought the headline was a joke. After watching the video called How Wolves Change Rivers, I’m amazed and inspired by how much impact the wolves have had on the ecosystem in Yellowstone after their re-introduction in 1995. Trees regrowing, deer and elk reduced, more beavers and song birds, and river banks stabilized; all by the rebalancing of nature by restoring a key species and natural predator. Wonderful.

Kindness Challenge Winner

Watch this touching video about Hannah Brencher who created a letter campaign that changed her life.

Communicating with Whales

Bryant Austin has an amazing story about how he has come to be photographing whales. He’s had a fascination with water and whales since childhood, but took a long and winding road to return to his early passions. He mentions that large whales like Blue Whales can communicate over thousands of miles! But the most interesting aspect to me is how they seem to have a deeper intelligence that we are only beginning to understand. Bryant attempts to bridge our understanding with his photography. Here’s a short video called Eye of the Whale. It’s good to remember that some whale species have been on earth for about 5 million years!

Free Food?

This is an interesting online project to encourage front yard and other small, local food share programs. Who wants to start?

Tiny Solar for Desalination

WaterFX is working on interesting modular solar systems that can both concentrate solar energy and use it to treat water. Their systems use the sun to heat mineral oil, create steam that desalinates water in a much more efficient way than current systems like reverse osmosis. The really juicy part is that they can also extract useful minerals like boron, gypsum, calcium and magnesium from the saline water in a cost effective way. So what has been a problem for current desalination becomes an asset to sell with this approach. This technology could be incredibly important as fresh water becomes more scarce and precious.

A Mother’s Love

As many of us know, a mother’s love doesn’t turn off with time or age. Though, sometimes I’m still surprised by my what my mother will do or say, treating me almost like a young kid! I realize that no matter how old I become, my mother loves me and expresses it the best she can. Read this poignant story of a dying mother’s love for her son.

Now that you’ve had a journey around the world embraced by the love of mothers, whales and more, let’s talk.

What’s sitting in your heart? Are you ready to reach out for more life? To give and be your best? I hope you found something to make the journey a little easier or inspiring.

Blessings, Brad