At Fun Palaces we are very aware that while there has been amazing community connection and generous caring during the Covid crisis, for many people these glimmers of hope and connection are part of a harder time of grief, loss and loneliness.
Clair Slade of Neotists, a community of creatives in St Neot’s, Cambridgeshire, shared this beautiful Tiny Revolutions with us.
We know it is as important to acknowledge our losses as well as our joys and we are very grateful to Claire for sharing with us how she did just that.
In the midst of all this…. this…. THIS… my dad happened to pass away. I couldn’t let it stack on top of all THIS that I had to deal with and keep together, so I chose joy. I chose openly shared joy. I didn’t wait.
I didn’t have much time as his funeral was two days after he died. So during what would’ve been his funeral, I went outside and shared some joy. I had some coloured tape, I’d bought it for a craft idea. It reacts to UV light, but I don’t have one. But it’s bright and eye catching. So I went out and measured and planned and figured out that I only had JUST enough tape to do what I had in mind as long as I left a few gaps.
It took hours but I did it! The Tiny Revolution was the smiling and chatting to people walking by. Neighbours I’d never met. People who would never talk to me, nor I them. They stopped, chatted, smiled, loved the idea, left smiling. It felt bloody good to reach out when frowns of fear are becoming the norm.
The best part is, I can see what I did from my window and so immediately ordered another set of tape to complete it. Now I see people walking past every day, and because it’s not immediately obvious, when they see it, they get it, they smile. I get to see that smile 🙂
Clair also sent an update: The rainbow is no longer there, the tape wasn’t at all endurable or weatherproof and started to flap away and fall apart, so I also took time to clean it all up again (which wasn’t as sad as I thought it would be, maybe it had served its purpose). I’m glad I took photos when I did!