Welcome to Day 26 of the #sendcardsspreadlove challenge for National Card & Letter Writing Month!
Today, Josh Solar implores us to not give up on love or on one another. AND we have the first of our two BIG GIVEAWAYS! Then on the Monday, the 30th, Ashley Reale gives us easy ways to spread kindness PLUS our final GIVEAWAY!
How To Participate In The Challenge
For those of you just joining us: welcome to the party & it’s not too late to participate! I’m asking you to send 4 cards out into the world this month, based on the 4 weekly prompts provided, plus a few bonus challenges. Which means there’s still 2 more opportunities to send cards & win prizes! Check out this post for the details on the week 4 challenge + BONUS challenge + recap of the entire challenge so far.
Day 26 Of The 2018 #sendcardsspreadlove Challenge
Week 4 Challenge: Love + Kindness
The challenge this week is to spread love and kindness. DETAILS here.
The prize is a collection of love cards (plus a 48 page downloadable pdf The Together Journal!) In order to be eligible to win:
- share your card and/or note with the week 4 challenge
- tag me on IG @prettybypost or in the FB group along with the #sendcardsspreadlove hashtag by April 30th at midnight EST.
BIG GIVEAWAY
It’s our first BIG giveaway! Today, in the spirit of kindness, Mr. Boddington’s Studio is generously offering challenge participants a $100 shop credit!!!
Mr. Boddington’s Studio is a boutique luxury stationer and design house located in New York City in a sunny little studio atop the pastry bakeries on 36th Street. (The collection includes the darling new children’s collection, Master Boddington, and the ever-unique Secret Society of Letter Writers.)
To be eligible to win you MUST follow the instructions above for the week 4 challenge and/or second BONUS challenge.
A winner will be picked randomly from ALL challenge participants on 5/1/18. Which means if you’ve already participated in any of the weekly challenges then you’ll be automatically entered. If you haven’t yet participated you still have 2 opportunities by participating in the week 4 challenge (by April 30th at midnight EST) AND the 2nd BONUS challenge by TONIGHT at midnight.
Here’s just a sample of their gorgeous cards that you’ll be able to choose from.
Good luck!
And now for today’s guest post.
I’m super excited for today’s guest, Josh Solar of Hello Happiness Card Co., because he’s been with PbP since the very beginning & this is his third year in the challenge too. Not only did he create the freebie e-card for my very first newsletter opt-in, but he also designed a custom card for PbP subscribers for my first curated collection (there’s a few of these collections left for purchase!). We also got to meet in person a couple years ago & Josh is the epitome of kindness & generosity, which is why I love having him as a guest blogger & I continue to work with him (his 48 page downloadable pdf The Together Journal is part of each weekly challenge prize).
And today, he’s inspiring us to spread love, kindness & hope. And to never give up on each other.
Not Giving Up On Each Other & Making Strangers Laugh
A month ago I met a young woman at a craft fair we were set up at. She came up to Jenny & I & told us that she bought some of our Mini Encouragement cards last year at the very same craft fair. Tears started to well up in her eyes, and mine, as she told us all about her battle with depression & anxiety & how those tiny cards offered her hope in some of her darkest times. In the words she found the strength to keep going. We hugged it out for a bit, right there in the middle of our tent.
I’ve been playing that scene over in my head for a while now. Because sometimes I don’t feel like making greeting cards. Sometimes little thoughts pop in my head saying what’s the point? But then I hear stories like that brave young woman’s. Or I see how someone has used one of our cards. Or I read a story of someone who found one of my letters that I leave for strangers & realize it’s SO MUCH MORE than the cards or the paper they’re printed on.
There’s some quote out there I read a lot saying something about kindness & how we’re all fighting our own battles. And it’s true. We all have our worries, our own anxieties. Life is a constant battle with darkness. And no two people’s darkness looks the same. So how do we find common ground? How do we create the light for all?
One thing I know for sure, though, is when I look at people’s hearts, instead of their faces or skin color or clothes or whatever else might be on the outside, it becomes perfectly clear. We all bleed red. We’re all sharing the same air. We all need food to survive & a safe place to lay our heads at night.
And, yet, I find myself acting selfish at times. I find myself judging. I find myself stereotyping. Why do I think I’m more important or better than another human, I ask myself. I find when I look at others for who they are, a living, breathing, alive human who’s doing the best they can fighting whatever battles they’re fighting…when I look at others that way, it’s simple.
Kindness. Kindness to all is what brings unity. There’s so much negativity & hate around me right now. And I can’t control what goes on around me. I can’t control if someone want to harm another. I can’t control if someone looks down on another. I can’t control much, really. But I can be kind. I can choose to see my fellow humans as brothers & sisters & offer them love. I can stand up for my fellow humans when I see them being put down.
Which brings me to this morning. I’ve got a good buddy. We’ll call him James (because that’s his name). James will go to war with you if you ask him. James will have your back if you need him too. James will sit in ice cold water with you because he doesn’t want you to feel like a weirdo out in the lake behind his house by yourself (thanks, James).
James will also challenge you when you’re not ready for it. In fact, yesterday, James shot me a text in the morning challenging me to make a stranger giggle, then he wanted me to share the story with him. Challenge accepted, James, challenge accepted. I worked all day from home and had to find a reason to get out of the house so I could find myself in a position to make a stranger giggle.
I offered to pick up Chipotle for Jenny & I. And I snagged my opportunity to make a complete stranger or 3 laugh. There was a long line, as usual at dinner time at Chipotle, and the initial tortilla warm woman was kind of stressed. Not to mention she was training someone new which probably added to the stress. All I know is when they asked what I’d like to eat, I asked them how their day was going. They said, OK, which is a totally normal response. I said, “I can tell you’re feeling a bit stressed, take a deep breath for me, then let’s do a little shimmy & loosen up.” They looked at me crazy. I said I was dead serious & that I wasn’t going to place an order until we all shimmied. So we shimmied, and we laughed, and we looked really really stupid inside the Chipotle. The people behind me looked at us kind of crazy, and so did the rest of the workers, but we were having a darn good time.
I told James the story. He let me know he made someone smile as he was ordering his coffee this evening. The kid looked so sad, he said. So he decided to only speak in gibberish sentences and questions. The kid was trying so hard not to laugh, but gave in because when a grown man speaks gibberish you kind of have to, right?
The point here is this. Life is too dang short to not laugh with complete strangers. And in James’ words, “We can all stop our self centered lives and make someone else feel some pleasure…life has never been about us.”
So, I’m asking you to join me as well. Try and make a complete stranger giggle today, and every day going forward for that matter. Never give up on the power of laughter to brighten someone else’s day. Never give up on love.
More importantly, don’t give up on each other.
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Author Bio
We believe our words are a powerful force of encouragement. We believe we can use our words to show up for those we love with compassion, empathy and understanding. We believe we exist to love and be loved. We believe with our words, we can make the world a more beautiful place.
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