I am fortunate enough to live in a city where some people do little things to make a difference. In the last few months with the coronavirus coming to town, a social media page was set up dedicated to painted rocks. But the page was not just for sharing mini works of art. These rocks were placed in public places by anyone in the community for the children to spot when they were out and about. It may seem insignificant, but it gave isolated children something to search for; a bit of brightness in a dark confusing time. The rocks were painted with pictures and uplifting sayings. In our own neighbourhood, Ben and I would spot a few when we were taking Marty for a walk. He enjoyed seeing them very much.
I too wanted to paint and leave some rocks around, hoping that they would brighten someone's walk or day. Ben wanted to help and did a wonderful job! He picked vibrant colours. I must admit, one he painted of a bright red poppy, I did keep for my gnome garden.
Today on my walk with Marty, I subtly placed several painted rocks around post boxes and tree stumps, wherever they may get noticed. Just hiding them filled me with joy. Some had cartoons and were silly, others had uplifting sayings like, "Be Kind," and "Feed Your Rainbow."
"Feed Your Rainbow," is a saying that I had seen a few years ago painted on a bench in the centre of town. A couple of weeks after that, I noticed it was embedded in the concrete sidewalk directly across from my house. I took it as a sign to keep going and not give up. I was painting a painting a day for 90 days at the time, hoping to sell some paintings from the project to make a living. But with Ben only 2, it was a tiring ambitious project. "Feed Your Rainbow," was one of the signs that reminded me what I was doing it for. Something about rainbows always resonated with me- maybe it has to do with all those colours.
For me, many colours mean many possibilities.
The person who painted that bench would never know that it would mean so much to someone else. I guess that's why the concept of painting rocks and hiding them is valuable and can cause a ripple in someone's life. Maybe these rocks will resonate with someone passing by who just might need that extra lift or smile to feed their rainbow.
I hope that I hear about someone finding them along the way.
"Feed your rainbow" - Anonymous, Stratford, 2015
"Feed someone else's rainbow." Me, 2020 ;)
