My lovely bride of nearly 18 years and I took a walk this late morning with our sweet and aging dog, Ally, a friendly Shepherd mix. Apart from a trio of 10 year old boys on bicycles and a lone jogger, we saw no one in our quiet, suburban neighborhood.
I pictured my neighbors, knowing most of them were home, peering at us through the slats of their Venetian blinds and plantation shutters, just as I've become accustomed to doing from inside my modest ranch house a few blocks away.
It was unusually hot -- reaching nearly 90 degrees by noon. It was around that time that we started to make our way back home, having worked up a sweat, which felt good after so many days of being sequestered. Ally, poor thing, was panting, trying her best to find the scant shade offered under the midday sun.
Jeanette was on her phone with our New York family, about whom we're especially concerned, as that city where both of us were born, and where so many of our loved ones still live, is now the "epicenter" of this virus's path.
It was during our home stretch that we came upon some "street art" that a neighbor's child (I assumed) had taken the time to create. On the driveway was a rendering in colored chalk, of a pink and red heart, next to the planet Earth, its oceans bright blue, interrupted by green continents. Encircling the globe, hands entwined, were multicolored human figures, and the world was crowned with one word, in large block letters: "UNITY." The artist had written another chalk message, this one on the sidewalk in front of the house. It read, "SMILE. YOU ARE IMPORTANT & LOVED!"
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the person who stopped to send this message out to the world. We need these brightly colored messages of love.
Now more than ever.
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| Street Art by Anonymous, Manor, Texas |
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| "SMILE. YOU ARE IMPORTANT & LOVED!" |
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