Kindness Rocks
Our newest and probably way over ambitious project is kindness rocks. Now obviously this is a stolen, or recycled, idea, not my own. I’ve seen this done a lot of places; in fact our little downtown area is filled with colorful rocks people have painted in order to promote happiness and kindness. And I thought what a great way to get other people involved, people that don’t live near me can participate, kids can participate. Pretty much anyone who wants to can help with this project. But mine has a twist and it’s the actual placement of the rocks. In the three years since Shaylyn died, I have spent an inordinate amount of time at the cemetery. And not really for the normal reasons I think people go. I don’t find peace or closeness to my dad and Shay there. I go a lot because I have an obsession with making their gravesite beautiful, so with the help of my SIL and my littlest niece and nephew, we plant flowers and grass there yearly and take care of them until about now when the frost hits. We decorate with lights and mementoes and little trinkets. But it always makes me think, who will do this when I die or if I ever move away? Who will visit my girl and maybe keep this little area beautiful? So I always spend time watering all the flowers I come across, just in case that family can’t get there, so they don’t come back to dead or dying flowers. And this is where my secret kindness rock idea came in. I love that secret good deed shit. So I got my nieces and nephews and friends with kids and whoever else wants to, to help me. We had a little painting party and we put our rocks out. Other friends and their kids have painted and dropped off rocks to me that I have placed on gravesites. This is going to be a long term project just for the one cemetery in town where Joe and Shay are buried, but after that is complete, I’m hoping to do it at every cemetery in town. To me it is a way for people that do not get to visit their loved one often, to see that someone has been there, someone has thought of their person, and someone has spent time making them a little painted rock. As of now I have placed a bunch of them, not sure on the exact number, but have hardly made a dent in even the small back area of the cemetery where they are, but when it’s done, and I don’t care how long that takes, every single grave marker or stone will have a little painted rock there, in honor of Shaylyn and the love we don’t get to spoil her with, so we give it to others. And hopefully it can stay a secret, because for some reason, I think that makes it more special.
