You know how, when you’re considering buying a certain kind of car, suddenly you see that make and model everywhere? Of course, it isn’t that there are suddenly a zillion more of that vehicle on the roads—it’s that your awareness has shifted, and now you notice them more.

That’s the way it is for me as I begin to delve into each theme for DoYouMind.life. I begin noticing conversations, comments on social media, news reports, and podcasts that relate to the themes I’m researching, and I filter new information through the lens of whatever topic has my attention.

So I took notice when a photographer friend posted on social media about finding a “Kindness Rock,” and I took Elizabeth Gilbert’s advice from Big Magic to heart and followed my curiosity. What in the world are “Kindness Rocks,” and how do they relate to creativity?

The idea is simple: take a rock, paint a kind or encouraging message on it, and leave it for someone else to find. That’s it!

The idea began with Megan Murphy, who is a life coach focused on empowering women. At the time when she created the idea, she was a successful entrepreneur, but she felt that something was still missing. Walking along the beach in Cape Cod, she picked up a few rocks, then took them home and painted them. She left them on the beach for someone else to find, and that would have been that, except that one of her friends called her and told her she’d found one of the rocks. When the friend told her that it had made her day, Megan knew she was on to something.

From those first five rocks, a movement began. Megan says, “The world needs more kindness and connection,” and Kindness Rocks are a way to create both. When someone finds a Kindness Rock, they know that another person has taken the time to decorate the stone and write an encouraging message on it. They know that someone else has been there before. And they know that the person who left it has done something selfless, because the artist will never know who might find the pebble and what it might mean to them.

I love this idea! I love it for its simplicity as well as its eloquence. A decorated stone, left in a garden, park, or beach, will surely surprise and delight its discoverer. “Who did this?” they must surely wonder as they turn the pebble slowly in their hand. Maybe the message written on the stone will be exactly the message that person needs, as Megan described. She told of a teen girl who was struggling with depression, and then found a stone that said, “Never give up. Never give in.” Serendipity!

As we wrap up this month of Creativity, I encourage you, Dear Reader, to consider spending some of your creative energy on making a few Kindness Rocks. Do it with children or with a friend. Make them and then have fun while finding places to hide them. Whether you consider yourself “artistic” or not, when someone finds your stone, you’re going to rock their world!

Until next time,