Years ago, I was hired to do an Author school visit at an elementary school in Delaware, Ohio, where my Goddaughter, Cricket, and her family lived. Her two daughters were students at the school and she invited me to spend the night in their beautiful country home.
Besides feeling loved and welcome, I was in for a unique kind of surprise. When I went to the guest bathroom, there was a basket on the wall just outside the bathroom door. In the basket were permanent markers of various colors. Above it, was a small handwritten sign:
“Take a marker
share your heart
or leave a thought.”
When I opened the bathroom door, I was awestruck. The walls and ceiling had been painted the palest green and wild flowers were stenciled here and there in no particular order.
At the base of the walls, also stenciled, was a rustic white picket fence entwined with ivy. On the fence was a bird house with small birds, a few butterflies, and there were daisies ‘growing’ at the floor level. Stenciled on the inside of the bathroom door was a rustic gate, which appeared to be attached to each end of the picket fence.
What was most amazing were the hundreds of sincere thoughts, some written, some printed, by their many friends. There was no set pattern to the writings, which is what was so beautiful —-the personal writings were shared everywhere: in between flowers, on separate pickets, on walls, the ceiling, even around light fixtures and the mirror.
Guests left their innermost thoughts, quotes, and heartfelt sayings everywhere —-I had never seen anything like it before, or since, and it touched me deeply.
My Goddaughter’s note above the basket with its gentle invitation to share our hearts was a brilliant and welcoming invitation to everyone who visited.
So, of course I left one, too …
Published Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018
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