stepping stone sunday: be a rock fairy (and perhaps win some rock fairy magic)
I arrived just 10 minutes before the reading was to begin. A four-hour Delta Airlines delay had left me with few options for actually getting there at all. While others lined up to talk to the gate agent in the tiny Asheville airport about this impending doom, I went back through security with my Ogio Layover Fantastic Rollaboard Wonder Bag and stood before the ticket agent at the Delta desk.
"Well, it looks like we can't get you there until 10:35pm tonight," he offered. "That won't do," I said nicely, my left eyebrow starting to twitch: "I have a book reading an hour from the Manchester, New Hampshire, airport at 7:00pm tonight. I have to be there."
"Sorry," he said, dismissing me. "Why don't you check with USAirways to see if they can help you."
Blink.
"No," I said, imagining Debbie Kelley waiting for me at the Manchester airport, a vision that moved me to clear and immediate action. "My ticket is with Delta. My ticket every single week of my life is with Delta. YOU check with USAirways to see it they can help me."
Long story short: I flew to Boston instead, Debbie arranged for a car to pick me up, and I literally walked into the book reading with 10 minutes to spare. Debbie greeted me with a pink sparkly crown and sceptor that she had made, saying "37days." She was handing out the coolest candles I had ever seen to all the full tables in the restaurant, full of people–it turns out–who had come to hear me read. All except one table in the middle with three people who seemed surprised at the chaos, ate, sat through a few stories, and then escaped with their leftovers.
As Debbie handed out crazy wonderful candles, a woman named Kim Mailhot handed out hand-painted rocks she had made, beautiful stones with gorgeous sentiments on them. I said hello to her as she passed, and she handed me a bag of rocks with a beautiful note to me, told me the story of the rocks–"I leave rocks everywhere," she said, "at the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, near the supermarket…"
"You're a Rock Fairy!" I remember saying to her, thrilled by her guerilla rock art. "Yes, I guess I am!" she responded.
She held out her basket of rocks for me. "Choose one," she said. And so I did. My rock said "Pain = change." I was struck silent for a moment, realizing that this was the rock I would carry with me. It is in my wallet and goes with me everywhere. The night before that trip, I had received some very difficult feedback from a friend. Difficult because of the grains of truth in it. Painful. And so, the next day, in the arms of this generous amazing woman had come my rock: "Pain = change." Funny how life works out that way sometimes.
Kim recently made me a video to celebrate the first birthday of Life is a Verb! And so, for that birthday celebration, for that rock, for her generous artistic self in the world, a gift is winging its way to Kim. It's a secret what it is. I'll tell you about it after she receives it.
AND! Kim sent a beautiful paper quilt square for my birthday along with a bag of her amazing magical rocks to give away to a 37days reader! If you leave a comment below with a quote about art or creativity, you'll be entered into the drawing to win this fabulous gift from Kim!
