Everyday I am amazed by the power of a little stone. We certainly have seen this during our COVID-19 isolation as both a coping strategy and as a way of reaching out. On my many walks in our neighbourhood with my pooch Rosie, I’ve seen countless examples – little stones brightly painted left in the schoolyard outdoor classroom gardens, encouraging the spring flowers to “Grow” while another asks me to be “Brave”; a tiny, “punny” stone left on a tree stump with words at the top reminding us to “Bee Kind” with a cute little honey bee painted underneath made me chuckle; Simple, sweet flowers painted on a stone left at the base of the mailbox. One FaceBook post I read cracked me up as a stone discovered on a forest hiking trail simply said, “Turn me over”… when turned over the stone mocked,”You just took orders from a rock!” 🙂 Cheeky stones!!
I know that our local elementary school teachers have given their students the “assignment” to find rocks in their environment, paint with kind messages and then take a walk and deposit them in random spots in our community. Despite the fact that the children won’t see the recipient receive or react to finding such treasure, it makes us feel so great to imagine making someone else feel good, maybe evoke a smile, or laugh. Even better, we imagine that our little stone makes the finder feel connected to someone else in this time of isolation.
To know that someone took the time to find a stone, imagine an image, a message and then spent time creating something beautiful that is meant to bring joy to someone else is so simply wonderful.
Sure is a lot of kindness, intention and love heaped onto one small piece of the Earth!