There isn’t a lot of foot traffic in front of my house. Occasionally I’ll get art dropped off, and sometimes things have been taken. But what I really notice is when people sign the guestbook with interesting things like, “I hope I can take my dad to see the northern lights” in response to a painting done by a young girl down the street, or “I really like the butterflies!” or “I stop by on my way home from school.”
Last week when I was checking on the art gallery, I noticed a sticker on the interior wall… And I opened the guestbook, and I’m paraphrasing here, but someone introduced himself and said that he just wanted to see the street where his birth mother had lived – across the street from me and two houses down.
He signed his name, and where he lived – in a city about 10 hours away. A few days later, the person he traveled with sent me a message on Instagram saying how wonderful it was to have that spot for him during this difficult time. That she didn’t know if he would reach out to me, but she just wanted to say thank you. My front yard is also full of native plants for pollinators, so it’s a nice little spot.
Well, he did reach out. We’ve exchanged a few messages, and one thing he said was:
“Hey there, I recently left a message in your notebook and stuck a lil sticker in your art box. The sticker is a self portrait I made on the beach with shells. I just want to thank you for having this art box. I was adopted and never met my birth mom, and went to visit her home for the first time. Your art box was a safe space to write a message. Thank you for that.”