What can you do with a bucket of chalk?
As much as you want.
Hello friend,
Drawing on sidewalks with chalk began as early as the 1600s. My first experience with chalk started with a child-sized chalkboard easel with the alphabet printed across the top. You can search for them now under “vintage children’s chalk boards.”
I stood for hours at the easel writing words Mom called scribbles. When I grew tired of words, scooping up chalk dust into small piles, making swirls and designs captured my attention.
Colored chalk added an exciting dimension of possibility—rainbows, blue sky, flowers, brown bugs, and words dancing in colors. Those thin sticks of chalky delight wore down quickly. . . until fat, bright sidewalk chalk became the rage.
Every day, big easy-to-hold chunks of chalk in every imaginable color arrive in big buckets. Let a child loose on the sidewalk and watch her imagination fly creating a house, a furry cat, or a new continent—in color!
What about us, the big kids? You may not have a bucket of chalk, but you could. Maybe your bucket overflows with brushes, paint, files, saws, baking pans, fabric squares, or multi-colored yarn. Children haven’t cornered the market on buckets or creativity.
In the adult world of news, work, raising children, balancing the checkbook, a bucket full of creativity can send you into the world of your imagination, calm an anxious soul, or make you smile.
So, today, grab your bucket, no matter your age. Let go of that mask of sophistication and enter the world of play. It’s good for you. Promise.
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; We grow old because we stop playing.—George Bernard Shaw
Creativity has not limits, just—never give up.
Candy Chang found a way to build community in New Orleans using colored chalk and walls asking a fill-in-the-blank question, “Before I die, I want to . . .”
A sidewalk song and one for—just because: The Sidewalk Rule and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road with Sara Bareilles — incredible.
“Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.”
—Derek Severs
If you would like to read more from me, visit my website. I’ll be waiting for you there.
With gratitude,
Kathryn
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My grandchildren had a ball with buckets of chalk when they were young. I always dreaded cleaning them off the sidewalk and driveway at the house. As soon as they came back the chalk returned. Reading has been my bucket of chalk for many years. I lose myself in the books and any problems I may feel that I have melt away.
Keep writing these short literary masterpieces Kathryn. They make an old man smile.