Thetford
“My whole kitchen table is just rocks and paint,” Tullgren, of Thetford, said with a laugh.
She estimates that’s she made around 150, which she’s placed in various locations throughout the Upper Valley, and they have made their way beyond the region for others to find.
Tullgren’s efforts are part of a larger network called The Kindness Rocks Project, which was founded by Megan Murphy, who began writing inspirational messages on rocks and placing them on a beach near her home.
Tullgren found her first three rocks at the Sculpture Rocks Natural Area in Groton, N.H.
Each rock has a painting or an inspirational message written on one side and is labeled with the Kindness Rock group that it’s part of on the other.
People who find one are encouraged to take a photograph of it and put it on the appropriate Facebook page. First, Tullgren linked up with the Vermont Kindness Rocks group, but has since created a page called Rivendell Rocks, which is specific to the Upper Valley.
“If they speak to you, definitely take them,” Tullgren said.
The finders can then keep them or place them somewhere else for the next person to find. The rocks come in all shapes and sizes.
“Some of them are big some of them are small it really depends on which rock is speaking to you,” Tullgren said. “A nice smooth river stone makes painting a lot easier.”
And their message has already had an impact. Tullgren shared that she had placed a rock with a monarch butterfly on it in a parking lot in Manchester. A woman visiting the city from Connecticut found it on the anniversary of her nephew’s death. She reached out to Tullgren to tell her how much joy and comfort it brought her.
“She made me have goosebumps and tears filled my eyes. That rock was meant for her,” Tullgren said. “Hearing those stories makes you want to do it even more.”
Tullgren is quick to discount her artistic talent, but the photographs she shares of the rocks tell a different story.
“I don’t consider myself to be an artist at all, I consider myself a doodler,” she said.
The rocks are bright and colorful. There are minions from the Despicable Me franchise, turtles, owls, ladybugs and hedgehogs. There’s a rock painted like a pickle, the phrase “dill with it” written on it and another that says “there is fun to be done.”
The mother of twin 15-year-old boys, Tullgren said the best compliment she received was when one of her sons asked to keep a turtle rock she painted.
“That melted my heart that one,” she said.
That same son works at an area ice cream shop and Tullgren has planted Kindness Rocks there.
“He just kind of rolls his eyes and smiles at me,” she said, but he is always sure to give her a full report when someone finds one.
And then there are the monsters. Painted by the children at Tullgren’s Little Feet Children’s Center, the rocks have also made their way out into the community.
Student Bryce Follensbee left a monster rock at a campground in Danville, Vt., and was delighted when two little girls found it and sent in a photograph.
The two then hid it in Shrewsbury, Vt., for another person to find and share in the excitement.
Anyone can participate in the Kindness Rocks project on their own time and in their own way. All people need to do is find a rock, decorate it, place it somewhere to be found and let the universe take over from there.
“I’m leaving them everywhere,” Tullgren said. “It’s just so nice to be sharing it with everyone else.”
And sure, some of the inspirational phrases — “Leave a little sparkle wherever you go,” “Be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud” — have likely been heard before. But if you see one unexpectedly on a day when you’re feeling your worst, it’s uplifting. It might give you a nudge you need, a sign from the universe that things are going to be all right.
“We need some more kindness out there in the world,” Tullgren said.
Who can disagree with that?
Editor’s note: For more information about Rivendell Rocks, visit Facebook. For more information about The Kindness Rocks Project visit thekindnessrocksproject.com. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
