Chalk Inspired!

People are inspiring!

I've said it many times before, love spreads and people fill me with inspiration.

Recently, I saw a beautiful, multicolored chalk encouragement in my neighbors' driveway. "Thank you doctors and nurses" it said, each letter a different vibrant color. I thought that was AWESOME and felt inspired to pass on that encouragement... and more!

So I bought a box of sidewalk chalk and picked a day, "Fun Friday", to do that as our activity of the day. 

We started at Fred Meyer with my daughters, my toddler, and our dog... To write on the sidewalk next to a BUSY street. I hadn't thought this out well...

I left my eldest in the van with the dog and toddler while my middle child and I hit the sidewalk. We quickly sketched out the words in big, block letters "DON'T GIVE UP", "YOU ARE LOVED", "KEEP HOPE", and my daughter added at the end "GOD HAS YOU".

It was thrilling. It was enjoyable, despite the rocks that dug into my knees, and it thoroughly brightened our spirits as we made an effort to brighten others.

We were inspired! We wanted to do more but we were running out of chalk so we dashed into Fred Meyer to grab FOUR more boxes of chalk and headed over to our hospital.

I felt nervous and excited all at the same time. Why? Because this was important and it meant something.

By the time we got to the sidewalk in front of the hospital it was past noon and sunny... and HOT! I grabbed a blanket to kneel on to save my knees and this time all four of us headed to the sidewalk next to the main street.

Thankfully, baby stuck very close to me, often even sitting on the blanket by me as I sketched out the big, blue letters "THANK YOU DOCTOR AND NURSE" (I ran out of space on the sidewalk to add the "s" but I knew the message wasn't compromised by that).

That felt so good to thank those on the front lines who are doing so much for our country and our people. Next my daughter wrote "KEEP HOPE" and I added a flower for my other daughter to fill in. My eldest wrote "GOD IS WITH YOU" and my middle child "YOU ARE LOVED".

We were feeling the heat by the time we finished. Heat exhausted and sweaty, we piled back into the van to drink some water and cool off. We were all excited and happy.

Encouraging others is encouraging!
Putting our focus on others helped improve our own attitude and increase our perspective. I would LOVE it if you would take some time to share an encouragement with your neighbors and community. Keep up the good work, Mama! You got this!

Much love,
-Joy