On January 6, 2017, we delivered our Kindness Painting and the Kindness Cards (made by some fantastic World-Changing Kids) to Rabbi Maranta. While it is important to be kind to everyone everyday, we wanted to shower our neighbour Rabbi Maranta with an extra dose of kindness because of the hateful messages that were spray painted on her door back in November. We wanted to make something to show her that we will not stand for that kind of hate. We wanted to let her know that we are happy she is part of our community. And we wanted to tell the world that we stand together in love and kindness.
So many amazing people in our community were involved in the creation of this painting and these beautiful cards.
My daughter and I prepped the painting.
Then we took the painting to our Kindness Club at Billingswood Manor Seniors Residence and had the kids and the seniors add their flowers.
Then we took the painting to the Once Upon a Dream Vendor Show on November 26, 2016. This event was a fundraiser for two fantastic organizations in Ottawa that work with people of all abilities – Family Harmonies Familiales and Power of Dreams Theatre. Joe Johnson, one of artists at the show, did the lettering for our words of welcome …. “we are all flowers from the same garden”. Then everyone took a turn painting in some of the letters – friends of all ages and abilities!
And the beautiful Kindness Cards were made by friends from all across Ottawa. Some were made by the kids at our Kindness Club at Billingswood Manor on the same day that we painted the flowers on to the Kindness Painting.
Some Kindness Cards were made by a local Bahai Children’s Class.
Some were made by our friends at Family Harmonies Familiales.
And I even went into my daughter’s class where all the students made a card. Her fantastic teacher wrote these suggestions on the board for the kids.
Then, when we had all of this ready and collected, we delivered the Kindness Painting and the Kindness Cards to Rabbi Maranta. Our very good friend, Rosie, met us outside to support our efforts and to show the world that dogs also stand for love and kindness.
Here we are joyfully presenting our Kindness Painting to Rabbi Maranta. What a journey of love and kindness the creation of this painting has been!
And here the painting sits – proudly showing the world that we believe that we are all flowers from the same garden and that we belong to each other!
To top off this amazing experience, here is a photo of the sign that Rabbi Maranta has on her front door. I had to take this photo on our way out. This says it all.
