Let Me Ease Your Day

You know how when you are hiking, sometimes you turn off the main path onto smaller trails almost at random? That's how I like to use the internet sometimes. I start somewhere I visit every day (like Ravelry) then see a pattern I find interesting, which leads me to the designer, which then leads me to his or her website, and perhaps beyond that to women who sculpt with chainsaws, for example.
This time, it led me to the site of Rockpool Candy where she writes about a movement she launched July 6th, 2009 called 'Let Me Ease Your Day'.
It's about Random Acts of Kindness, and fiberlisciousness, and putting a little of yourself into giving. It's about branching off from yarn grafffiti and fiber bombing and leaving useful and charming gifts behind you as you go about your day.
Her words are better than mine:
"In times of financial worry, charities suffer. The public pull in their purse strings and stop giving. When the living is easy, our money is often given to charity to ease our consciences, to allow us to carry on our day to day lives without having to interact with needy causes and to feel like we're doing something.
But I want society to be different.
As crafters we have skills that we can put to use and make a difference that is not dependent on the free change we have in our pockets.

6th July sees my LET ME EASE YOUR DAY project launch in Belfast. A movement that takes what can often been seen as a middle-class pass time, yarn bombing, and purposes it for the good by providing knitted, crocheted and sewn textiles to the people in our society who might just need a random act of kindness to ease their day.

It could be you.
You may be having a bad day.
You could be sleeping rough.
Your job may be in jeopardy.
You could be worried about your mortgage.
You could have lost your cat/your friend/your child.

All these things leave us feeling vunerable.

What if, during your day, you found a small item left for you by a stranger specifically to nurture you. It won't solve all your problems, but it may just put a glimmer of warmth in your chest.

Now, you may argue that LET ME EASE YOUR DAY is still a middle class reaction to human loneliness, but surely, as makers, it's a way that we can make a difference with textiles.

If you have the time to open your heart and fibre stash. If you have a piece of fabric that could be turned into napkins or a tablecloth for a pensioners' drop in centre, an old sleeping bag or tent that could be the warmth needed by a rough sleeper, a cushion that could provide comfort to someone on their commute, some yarn that could make socks or a hat to keep out the cold, then commit a random act of kindness. Be different."

I don't get out and about much. I am lucky if I leave the house once a week (except for brief jaunts in the motorized chair around my immediate neighborhood when the weather is good); but I DO travel the web every day, sometimes for hours. This blog is a great part of my interaction with the rest of the world, and as such, I use it to encourage you to follow Rockpool Candy's idea, in your own way, and as it fits into your life.

If you don't create within the craft world, how about addressing a humorous card "To the first person to pick me up" and leaving it behind in a taxi or bus?
Or perhaps leaving a nice book mark in a library book you are returning?
Maybe you could bring in a bowl of peaches to the lunchroom at work.
I am certain there are as many ways to be kind as there are ways to be impatient and brusque.
Find your own, act on it, and maybe; pass on the idea however you can.