I feel that this crazy period of the past 10+ months of lockdowns, face masks, alcohol gel, 2m rule… have taken a huge toll on our communities.

When sneezing leads to hostile looks instead of ‘bless you’, we all instinctively know that something is missing.

I think that this something is the explicit understanding that we’re all in this together.

So, I would like to propose an activity. Call it a game, even.

I’ve taken a stab at making ‘kindness rocks’ for Halloween that may allow us to go ‘trick or treating’ without risking further contagion.

Here it goes:

• Find the 5 Halloween stones, and take a photo with them.
• Don’t forget to hide them again for the next child to find it!
• Post your photo on the embrace kindness group and send me a private message with your address
• Wait for a goody bag to be delivered to your door

I will hide the stones on Friday, 30 October, so you have time to visit the garden all day on Friday and Saturday. Post your photos from the 30th until the 1st of November and I will deliver the sweets on Tuesday the 2nd.

A few things to consider:

Don’t hide the stones in the open grass, the lawnmowers will not appreciate it.

When you find a stone, make sure you hide it again, in the same place or a different one, but please don’t make it very difficult, we want the little ones to have the happiness to find the stones on their own.

Make sure you don’t let your child take the stone home, so the game can continue.

It will be fun to take the children to do the treasure hunt in costume and maybe give them a scare from the bushes?!

When posting the photos, you can choose to show just the hands of the child and the costume.

Consider making some stones yourself and join our group.

What happens if I don’t have Facebook? Just send the photos via WhatsApp, but the group has lots of other nice things and I will be using it during Christmas for a Gratitude stones project that you may want to join.

Have a happy Halloween and happy treasure hunt for you

https://www.facebook.com/groups/embracekindness and let’s start creating.