Gift Rocks

My family went camping this weekend, and my little six-year-old grandson found a Friendship Rock at the campsite playground. For those of you who might not know, a Friendship Rock is just a (usually) flat rock that someone has painted and left behind for someone else to find.

Friendship rocks can have words on them, scenery, abstract designs — anything. They are so fun to find — you feel like a faerie has left her work behind for you someplace.

So the next day we bought some acrylic paints and found a handful of flat rocks throughout the campground and had a paint fest. All ages joined — four-year-olds through 70-ish flower children. Some of us wrote a message, others made abstract designs.

It was  a come-together moment for all of us.

Our little group.

Painting the words “Peace” and “I Love You” for someone else to find. To make someone else’s day.

Life is made of small moments like this. Moments of gratitude, of comradery and friendship and pockets of love. Not doing anything special but sending friendship up into the atmosphere and into the rocks we were painting.

Sometimes the answers are so simple. The solutions to mankind’s woes can be found in small brush strokes or made up songs or making stained glass out of construction paper.

No war was fought. No shootings. No shouting matches.

Everyone got to express their inner thoughts with paint and rocks.

The next day we drove around and left our little gifts for others to find. Down by the beach, on a rock near the walking path. We hoped that the next person who found them would smile and feel good and share that feeling with others.

Find your own peace through Art. It will make you feel better.