Dear Pinterest, thanks.
I dropped a card off to my neighbours last week with a copy of my post "Porch Drop".
I left it in their mailbox and waved, and then panicked for my entire walk that I might have COVID and they will probably die, all from me infecting them with my nice gesture.
But for the actual split second that I dropped the envelope in the mailbox, it felt pretty fulfilling to do something nice for people I didn't know.
The next day, when I walked past their home, they both stood up and gave me the thumbs up symbol from their window.
I smiled, finally feeling like I'd done some good during a time of feeling generally so helpless.
***
The bugs by the waterfront are at the height of super annoying at the moment, so I haven't seen my lovely neighbours this week because I was forced to change my routine. I started doing sprints down the path behind my house instead. It gave me back an hour into my day (because I'm so, so busy, you know, that I could use another hour to my day) and more importantly, it saved me from the bug swarms at the beach.
(Okay, I did this once. I am not sprinting daily, training for Tokyo 2021. Once, I sprinted. And for the next two days, I painfully rolled my quads over a foam roller. But I have high hopes for next week.)
This morning was the first time I did my "normal" routine again and passed the couple on the corner.
She was outside gardening and asked me where I've been.
(She literally yelled across the street "Where you been? We haven't seen you in a week!")
She had saved stones for me to do the Rainbow Tree project and had them all in a pail.
Okay, so first of all, how unbelievably amazing is that??! They were collecting stones from their backyard, bless them.
But secondly, COME ON - I wrote about the rocks, I don't PAINT them.
I was so touched that they were thinking of me though, that I totally owned this entire thing. I thanked her profusely and assured her I was getting right on it.
I giggled the whole way home.
What in the @#$% am I going to do with all these stones?
I am not even sure I have any paint.
(Okay, I definitely don't have any paint.)
I might have a pencil crayon and chalk.
No paint.
I have a new shipment of Bath and Body Works hand soap (thanks to my fabulous colleague), some pens (papermate, medium point, flexgrip - should be on my next Favourite Things post … they should be THE only pens available for purchase) from my sister's Amazon birthday gift card, some beautiful flowers in the window (thanks to Mattingly and Kate who I give eggs and butter to and get flowers and wine. Hell of a deal if you ask me) - but no paint.
I have a pail of rocks and now I'm kinda feeling some massive pressure to get these things painted.
I will figure something out.
Dear Pinterest,
Thanks.
ALOT.
If I think about it, this has to be a better idea than where I got to yesterday.
Yesterday I did the first two hours of a Beginner's Photoshop course.
I've always wanted to learn Graphic Design. Okay, well not always, but all of a sudden yesterday it struck me as completely a thing I must do, to learn Photoshop so I could be all creative and artsy and I could whip up a design on a Sunday afternoon.
There is one tiny issue with this.
I DON'T HAVE PHOTOSHOP ON MY COMPUTER.
Or Indesign.
Or Illustrator.
Or basically any program that would allow me to actually practice this skill.
I am kind of thinking it is like the osmosis learned skills in Demolition Man.
Did you see that movie?
Sylvester Stallone is in a cryo - frozen - prison thing and they program his brain during the entire time.
(Must see movie …. humans no longer using touch, programmable skills, not to mention the extinction of toilet paper - rather applicable to our current situation, don't you think?)
(Have I already talked about this? I feel like I've mentioned this movie before.... I clearly feel quite strongly about it.)
Anyways, I am learning a new skill I cannot use but I'm super excited about.
I now know things like how to add a gradient, why the Graphic Designers I used to work with hate changes, and the overall importance of layers.
I'm sure this will all be very handy knowledge at some unbeknownst time in the future.
(You are welcome to question the manic lockdown behaviour I'm exhibiting.)
Painting stones sounds like it might be a better use of my time.
As I turned the corner home, my neighbour was getting out of his truck and said Hello.
In fact, this is what I'm finding so fascinating recently.
EVERYONE just wants to say Hello.
I sit on my front deck getting some afternoon sun, and my next door neighbour talks to me about her walks and the raccoons and the skunks (they are quite the thing downtown Burlington), the couple down the street waits to say hello, the neighbour I was just referring to is telling me about how his job and what projects they are working on, the guy I walk past on the beach who eats an orange and drops the peel in the same spot every day (reminds me on Hansel and Gretel) all of a sudden must talk to me about the weather and say hi.
Everyone just wants to talk.
We have gone from a society that is buried into technology and mindlessly scrolling for fulfillment to a society that is craving contact so badly, we will talk to anyone and everyone that crosses our path. (When I say path, I obviously mean the 6 feet version of it).
I literally cannot get through a walk now without nearly every single person trying to greet me in some way, and I find that pretty awesome.
***
Thank God for Google.
The pail of rocks has now cost me 3 hours of surfing for "easy to do" designs and $26 of Acrylic Paint Pens (after further research on what type of paint to use, should I use a sealer, where should I buy them.)
This was my thrifty choice, since I also wanted glitter pens, sparkles, glue on little diamonds, pastels, rainbows and metallic. The first kit of markers I looked at was $55. A little steep since I've never painted a rock before, but I had all these visions of things I could do with 26 different colours.
(I seem to have Martha Stewart ambition with the budget of Mr. Rogers.)
Anyways, we are tiptoeing into this hobby with a nice, cool $26 start up fee.
Sadly, I thought May 19th shipment was this Tuesday, but it is not.
So for now, we await the Delivery Gods of Amazon before I can attempt another goodwill gesture of giving the gift of rainbow tree rocks back to the couple who saved them for me to paint.
***
What I love most about this story isn't so much about the rocks though.
It's the completely unexpected impact that my note had on my neighbours I've never even met. They waited every single day for a week for me to come by and spent their afternoons collecting rocks from their backyards to put into a pail by the sidewalk to give me something back in return.
The thoughtfulness overwhelmed me and melted my heart.
I had unknowingly given them a purpose when they were unable to leave their home.
I don't think any of us realize, I mean truly realize, the impact we have on other people. Whether we give our time, our money, our efforts, our advice, does not matter. What does matter is that, when we least expect it, when we give unconditionally and with the best of intentions, inevitably a token of kindness is reciprocated beyond what we could ever imagine.
Whoever would've thought that there could be so much value in the connection between a hand written note and a pail of rocks.
I left it in their mailbox and waved, and then panicked for my entire walk that I might have COVID and they will probably die, all from me infecting them with my nice gesture.
But for the actual split second that I dropped the envelope in the mailbox, it felt pretty fulfilling to do something nice for people I didn't know.
The next day, when I walked past their home, they both stood up and gave me the thumbs up symbol from their window.
I smiled, finally feeling like I'd done some good during a time of feeling generally so helpless.
***
The bugs by the waterfront are at the height of super annoying at the moment, so I haven't seen my lovely neighbours this week because I was forced to change my routine. I started doing sprints down the path behind my house instead. It gave me back an hour into my day (because I'm so, so busy, you know, that I could use another hour to my day) and more importantly, it saved me from the bug swarms at the beach.
(Okay, I did this once. I am not sprinting daily, training for Tokyo 2021. Once, I sprinted. And for the next two days, I painfully rolled my quads over a foam roller. But I have high hopes for next week.)
This morning was the first time I did my "normal" routine again and passed the couple on the corner.
She was outside gardening and asked me where I've been.
(She literally yelled across the street "Where you been? We haven't seen you in a week!")
She had saved stones for me to do the Rainbow Tree project and had them all in a pail.
Okay, so first of all, how unbelievably amazing is that??! They were collecting stones from their backyard, bless them.
But secondly, COME ON - I wrote about the rocks, I don't PAINT them.
I was so touched that they were thinking of me though, that I totally owned this entire thing. I thanked her profusely and assured her I was getting right on it.
I giggled the whole way home.
What in the @#$% am I going to do with all these stones?
I am not even sure I have any paint.
(Okay, I definitely don't have any paint.)
I might have a pencil crayon and chalk.
No paint.
I have a new shipment of Bath and Body Works hand soap (thanks to my fabulous colleague), some pens (papermate, medium point, flexgrip - should be on my next Favourite Things post … they should be THE only pens available for purchase) from my sister's Amazon birthday gift card, some beautiful flowers in the window (thanks to Mattingly and Kate who I give eggs and butter to and get flowers and wine. Hell of a deal if you ask me) - but no paint.
I have a pail of rocks and now I'm kinda feeling some massive pressure to get these things painted.
I will figure something out.
Dear Pinterest,
Thanks.
ALOT.
If I think about it, this has to be a better idea than where I got to yesterday.
Yesterday I did the first two hours of a Beginner's Photoshop course.
I've always wanted to learn Graphic Design. Okay, well not always, but all of a sudden yesterday it struck me as completely a thing I must do, to learn Photoshop so I could be all creative and artsy and I could whip up a design on a Sunday afternoon.
There is one tiny issue with this.
I DON'T HAVE PHOTOSHOP ON MY COMPUTER.
Or Indesign.
Or Illustrator.
Or basically any program that would allow me to actually practice this skill.
I am kind of thinking it is like the osmosis learned skills in Demolition Man.
Did you see that movie?
Sylvester Stallone is in a cryo - frozen - prison thing and they program his brain during the entire time.
(Must see movie …. humans no longer using touch, programmable skills, not to mention the extinction of toilet paper - rather applicable to our current situation, don't you think?)
(Have I already talked about this? I feel like I've mentioned this movie before.... I clearly feel quite strongly about it.)
Anyways, I am learning a new skill I cannot use but I'm super excited about.
I now know things like how to add a gradient, why the Graphic Designers I used to work with hate changes, and the overall importance of layers.
I'm sure this will all be very handy knowledge at some unbeknownst time in the future.
(You are welcome to question the manic lockdown behaviour I'm exhibiting.)
Painting stones sounds like it might be a better use of my time.
As I turned the corner home, my neighbour was getting out of his truck and said Hello.
In fact, this is what I'm finding so fascinating recently.
EVERYONE just wants to say Hello.
I sit on my front deck getting some afternoon sun, and my next door neighbour talks to me about her walks and the raccoons and the skunks (they are quite the thing downtown Burlington), the couple down the street waits to say hello, the neighbour I was just referring to is telling me about how his job and what projects they are working on, the guy I walk past on the beach who eats an orange and drops the peel in the same spot every day (reminds me on Hansel and Gretel) all of a sudden must talk to me about the weather and say hi.
Everyone just wants to talk.
We have gone from a society that is buried into technology and mindlessly scrolling for fulfillment to a society that is craving contact so badly, we will talk to anyone and everyone that crosses our path. (When I say path, I obviously mean the 6 feet version of it).
I literally cannot get through a walk now without nearly every single person trying to greet me in some way, and I find that pretty awesome.
***
Thank God for Google.
> Rock painting for beginners
> Easy rock painting ideas
> Rock painting ideas for children
> Step by step rock painting tutorial
> Best paint to use for rock painting
The pail of rocks has now cost me 3 hours of surfing for "easy to do" designs and $26 of Acrylic Paint Pens (after further research on what type of paint to use, should I use a sealer, where should I buy them.)
This was my thrifty choice, since I also wanted glitter pens, sparkles, glue on little diamonds, pastels, rainbows and metallic. The first kit of markers I looked at was $55. A little steep since I've never painted a rock before, but I had all these visions of things I could do with 26 different colours.
(I seem to have Martha Stewart ambition with the budget of Mr. Rogers.)
Anyways, we are tiptoeing into this hobby with a nice, cool $26 start up fee.
Sadly, I thought May 19th shipment was this Tuesday, but it is not.
So for now, we await the Delivery Gods of Amazon before I can attempt another goodwill gesture of giving the gift of rainbow tree rocks back to the couple who saved them for me to paint.
***
What I love most about this story isn't so much about the rocks though.
It's the completely unexpected impact that my note had on my neighbours I've never even met. They waited every single day for a week for me to come by and spent their afternoons collecting rocks from their backyards to put into a pail by the sidewalk to give me something back in return.
The thoughtfulness overwhelmed me and melted my heart.
I had unknowingly given them a purpose when they were unable to leave their home.
I don't think any of us realize, I mean truly realize, the impact we have on other people. Whether we give our time, our money, our efforts, our advice, does not matter. What does matter is that, when we least expect it, when we give unconditionally and with the best of intentions, inevitably a token of kindness is reciprocated beyond what we could ever imagine.
Whoever would've thought that there could be so much value in the connection between a hand written note and a pail of rocks.
Comments
Post a Comment