Moving Rocks

by Margie Senechal
 
In the past few months, I've worried about the state of our nation--so filled with angry rhetoric, hate-spewing politics, and just a general sense of hopelessness. Like, this is what we've come to????

But, in the past few weeks, two things happened to give me hope.

The Olympics and Vancouver "Rocks!".

The Olympics remind me of opening a retail store. When I was with Walgreens, I helped open the majority of the stores in Vancouver and a number in Oregon as well. And there would be a point, about a week before opening, when we thought, "How is this going to be ready in five days???" But, inevitably, on opening day, the store was done and beautiful and the opening went off without a hitch.

Olympics are like that--there are always rumors about the host city--not enough hotels, venues aren't ready, questionable security--but then the opening ceremonies begin and all that worry is forgotten as we get down to the business of watching our athletes compete and we get swept up in National pride.

And then there's Vancouver Rocks.

About three weeks ago, my friend found these two rocks on her walks at different times and places. She posted them on FB and I was a little jealous that she'd found the rocks. But, how cool, right?

Then a coworker told me about the FB group, Vancouver "Rocks!" and I joined. 
It began in June and now has over 17,000 members. And their/our main motive is to spread joy by painting and dropping rocks all over town.

I have yet to paint or find one, but I find inspiration in the posts. I love that the Vancouver Rocks posts are dominating my feed, pushing the political waste aside.

I've read about a chemo patients finding "hope" rocks as they left the center, people finding rocks after a particularly hard day at work, kids finding them in parks.

And the creativity and talent in our town is astounding. They say creativity inspires creativity and we're watching it in action on this page.

Families are sitting down to paint together and then sharing the rocks around the county in various locations. Friends are finding each other on the page and getting together to paint. People find one rock and replace it or rehide it somewhere else so someone else can have the joy of finding a rock.

The craft stores and local Wal Marts are running out of paint supplies because so many people are joining this movement. A movement that began in June and shows no sign of slowing down. Because who doesn't need a spot of hope and spontaneous joy?