Kindness Mission

 [ kindness mission: heart art by Laly Mille, butterfly art by Ginger Deverell ]

I’m delighted to share my recent kindness mission with you. It began as a shared project with my online creative community, inspired by this, and her, and blossomed into so much more.

My lovely and talented artist friend Laly Mille and I collaborated. She’s in France. I’m in Canada. We sent each other our art to print, and we both penned kind notes onto them—mine in English, hers in French. This added a truly special layer to the project. We connected and energized each other with our back-and-forth emails throughout the project, and ideas flowed.

[ filling our art notes with inspirational thoughts and quotes ]

We “abandoned” them out into our communities for others to find: dropped them in mailboxes, tucked them into library books, put up take-what-you-need posters on local bulletin boards, and I strung up notes on a small tree where passerby pedestrians couldn’t help but be curious. Frowns and serious faces were replaced with smiles and softness. Secretly watching some of the reactions was heartwarming. And not knowing who would get the rest of the notes and how it would touch their lives was the gold of this project. I hope we have brought a little tenderness, hope, love and connection to a few people who need it most.

[ decorating my love notes tree ] 

[ hiding secret bookmark notes at the library ]

 [ putting take what you need posters up around the community - this fun idea was inspired by this post by kelly Rae Roberts ]

When my four year-old son asked me what I was working on I did my best to explain kindness to him, and particularly the idea of sending kindness out to strangers anonymously. He said “oh I get it, you’re trying to make people feel happy and loved.” That did it. He was in. We crafted some more notes together and together we snuck them into mailboxes. We invited friends along and quickly we became a troupe. They coasted along streets on their bikes, vying for the position of choosing a note and delivering it. Our spirits were high and our hearts were full.

[ a peek at the junior kindness deliveries, so fun ]

It got me thinking about what I want my son to experience in his education (something often on my mind these days). How I want him to have opportunities to learn through real life experiences. Conversations about intentional learning and values are abundant in our household. What could be more important than for a young mind and heart to learn the importance of giving, being kind, thinking of someone else. And doing it in an organic creative way, with care. It affirms what I already know – I’m committed to walking with our son on his learning journey and building creative ways for his education to unfold. The result? He soars.

One final spark of kindness: Laly and I are sharing our take what you need kindness posters as free downloads. Grab my poster here in English and French, and get Laly's on her blog. Print them out, hang them on your fridge, post them on bulletin boards around your own community. Keep the kindness flowing! And if you do, come back and leave us a note in the comments!

The other half of this mission lives on Laly's blog. Make sure you head over to read it, and to get her free kindness poster!  

Thank you kindness mission. You opened my heart (our hearts).

This post is part of our monthly Flying Lessons Blog Circle. Click through to Laly Mille’s blog to see her experience of our shared kindness mission! And then continue on to the next kindness project in the circle by visiting the link she shares at the end of her post. Here is the full group:
Ginger Deverell, Canada (You Are Here)
Laly Mille, France
Sandy King
Naz Laila, Australia
Kristen Fairgrieve
Lulu Bea (Alaina McGinley)
Karrlin Bain, USA
Kathie Gadd
Chandra Merod
Lisa Ullrich

And visit Kelly Rae Roberts website to gather fabulous kindness mission ideas.