Making Memories and Traditions... At The Beach - Messages on Pebbles

I know that I haven't finished writing up the posts on Malta yet (a break we took a few months back) ... but I wanted to tell you about this fun day that we experienced about a week ago when we were on holiday as a family in Rye.

One of the days we took Heni to Winchelsea beach (close to where we were staying).
As we were trudging all the bags, chairs, cool box etc on to the beach I had my eyes down, as I usually do, looking for the perfect heart shaped rock.  All of a sudden I noticed a  number of pebbles with writing on gathered together in a group. I bent down and took a closer look and a smile crossed my face…. There was another kindred spirit on the beach who likes to do  random fun stuff like we do! (In the past we have been known to make little painted prayer rocks and paper weights for the kids and other friends... and last year when we were on holiday in Cornwall...we had also done some drawing and writing on pebbles and left them behind for someone to find. It was a nice reminder for me of how much fun we had  that day and how the time seemed to whiz by as we churned the pebbles out of the "beach factory" and dotted them in strategic places everywhere…

We quickly set up camp....                                                                        

...and then I was off looking to see if the person had left any more stones hanging around...

 It wasn’t long before I found another....

and another….

...and  another

 That was it …"So why not do it again this year" I thought? 

We were on a mission…. daughter number two, Gem  and I set to finding any pens we had in our bags.  Gem had the only sharpie that would write reasonably on the pebbles so we had to take it in turns to "create" ...however we each found a bunch of favourite shaped rocks and began our manufacturing process.

  

....here are a few of the ideas we had ....

 

 While the boys entertained themselves throwing stones in to the sea...

 ...we wrote and drew on more pebbles...Here's another batch...

...and another batch….

...and another batch

Gemma decided to draw round Heni’s hand and leave a message from her too…

Maybe the caption should have said "Live long and prosper?!"

 and some more…..

  Here's what our little factory looked like…..

By the time we had finished... I reckon we must have churned out about a hundred pebbles with all sorts of sayings and pictures on them.... some were from my quilt and my little book of calm and my mindfulness app on my phone and from my Ensign magazine.

At the end of the day we went for a walk down the beach and strategically dotted the stones along the way. We hoped that someones day would be changed by finding one... and a smile would be added to a few peoples faces (Like the one that was added to mine earlier in the day).  Doing this fun little project  took most of the day (on and off between dips in the sea and lunch of course!) ...the hours seemed to whiz by as we sat in the sunshine drawing and writing.

As the day came to an end and as people were beginning to pack up and go home, a couple who were  heading back to their car noticed some of pebbles we had left and began a conversation about them… and as I took the final bag to the car I saw one person bend down and take a picture of a stone that he had stumbled upon. At least two of them were seen!

 A few days later we decided to go to Dungeoness beach further down the coast....(I think it should be called Pebble Heaven Beach!!) With pen in hand, daughter number two and I  began to manufacture another batch...

..or two...

I realised that as I was writing on the stones, looking out to sea, listening to the wind and the gulls around me, that I was totally engrossed in the moment... fully present and enjoying the NOW... 
So I left this little reminder for the people who would later walk along the same stretch of beach and perhaps help them to remember to make the most of THEIR now too...

Thank you to the person who brightened our day at Winchelsea beach by putting a smile on our faces, reminding us of last year and setting us off on this years memory making exercise… 
A  simple act by a stranger changed our day and maybe our small effort changed someone elses too…. who knows what sort of effect these sayings will have upon someone?  Maybe the people who find them WILL take the time to lie on their back and watch the clouds go by or phone a friend and tell them how much they care about them….or just know that someone, somewhere cares for them.

Maybe they will decide to also go about producing their own little beach factory and put  some more smiles on other peoples faces…. 
Who knows what sort of a ripple effect these little pebbles may have!? 

Jx

 So I guess that because we have now done this a few years in a row we have begun a new  tradition. When I pack for next years holiday I’ll have to be sure to take my FaberCastell pens with me so that I can get really creative... and even add a bit of colour... I've even started a Pinterest board especially for next years pebble designs!

If you find yourself on a beach anytime soon, why not leave someone a nice message... be sure to take some sharpies with you.