This post that Andrea of HulaSeventy posted earlier this year was a reminder of this first post of hers that I read about guerilla art that has been on my to do list for about...five years. I love the way that woman approaches life. She's inspired me (and I'm sure many, many others) to keep an eye out for the special parts of life that are so easy to spot when we are young but that can be overlooked as we embrace our changing roles and responsibilities. I like that she lists simple pleasures, celebrates urban beauty, and uses photography to bring love and joy to herself and those her life touches.
This weekend I decided it was time to introduce the kids to guerilla art in a similar way Andrea and her family did years ago. I sat the kids down with some paper and markers and sectioned off places for them to draw on for easy cutting. I told Sebastian to think about drawing something that would make someone happy like the sunshine or flowers so that's exactly what he did. Ruby drew a bunch of circles around circles and then I added little messages to their drawings. I then wrote out some affirmations that I knew I'd appreciate if I found them in a crack in a wall somewhere.
We copied, cut, folded, and headed downtown to see what would happen. I told the kids we were going to hide these messages for people to find and that they'd make them happy. They didn't really need more of an explanation and quickly discovered the kinds of nooks and cracks their little notes would fit into. Sebastian started asking if he could just hand them to people so I told him to go for it. He gave his first one to a little girl about his age and told her mama it was a secret message. He wasn't discouraged when people weren't interested and just moved on to the next. It was so fun to step back and see how much they enjoyed it and to realize we were doing something really good for our own family in the process regardless of how these notes were ever received.
It's my hope that many of these little notes will have stayed put until Monday morning. What better day of the week to find a surprise in your meter or on the floor as you open your shop for business?
Thank you, Andrea, for inspiring our family to journey out of our comfort zone and interact with our town in a new way. It was good for our hearts.
Have you ever run across a secret message tucked in a corner or an affirming sticker in the ladies room? Have you ever left one of your own?
-Rachel
