Notes| from the Fox Den

by Josie Fox

Hello from the Fox Den! I hope you are all surviving the warmer days that we are beginning to see. As for me, I am loving the long, hot days (please don’t throw anything at me).

On Wednesday, June 13 I attended a ribbon cutting at Edward Jones in Rusk and while there I found a #RuskRocks painted rock. I posted a picture of the rock on my Facebook page before I re-hid it which spurred a question from one of my social media friends asking why they see these painted rocks a lot now. So, I figured why not write about painted rocks and provide a little history on how they got started.

This gave me a chance to use my Jedi Master level Google skills for something useful, and here are a few things I found out:

According to an article written in 2015 by Melissa Heckscher titled ‘Here’s why painted rocks are the next big thing’, Megan Murphy of Massachusetts accidently started the Kindness Rocks movement in 2013 when she scribbled a few inspiring words on a rock and left it on a Cape Cod beach.
In that article Murphey was quoted as saying “The project isn’t about rocks per se, its about connection. People find a rock, and they relate to the message on the rock. Then they connect with the fact that there is a human being on the other end of that rock, and they don’t feel so alone.”

Long before I even knew about painted rocks they had become a nationwide scavenger hunt for children and adults alike meant to promote positivity and kindness. Not only are there Facebook groups dedicated to painted rocks, but there are also Pinterest boards offering inspiration and Martha Stewart even did a video on how to turn your painted rocks into animals.

I personally heard about painted rocks about a year and a half ago when I found my first one. Mr. Fox had been gone for work about a week, it was a Saturday morning and I was feeling a little lonely and decided to go walk Adalee (Kingsley was not a part of our family yet) at the Ruby M. Mize Azela Garden. While strolling one of the paths, a very bright yellow object caught my eye so I picked it up to examine it. Painted in blue letters was the phrase ‘you’ve got this’, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I really think I needed to hear those words that day.

At that time, I didn’t know you were supposed to re-hide them, so that rock stayed with me about 2 months before it was set back out in the wild to give someone else a little boost.

Since then, I look for rocks everywhere I go in hopes of finding them and I have come across some that were painted by extremely talented individuals. While on a recent trip in San Antonio, I found a painted rock that I brought back and re-hid in our neck of the woods...I wonder how far that one rock has actually traveled now and what other towns it may have made it’s way to.

I love seeing families out hiding rocks around town and spending time having fun outdoors.

Some of the Facebook groups in our area that I have seen are Rusk Rocks, Alto Rocks and Painted Rocks.

If you are out searching for rocks and find one, check and see if they list a group on there so you can be sure to tag them when you find it.

I really hope this trend doesn’t die out any time soon because we can all use a few inspirational words every now and then.