Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine – Paint a Rock & Give a Smile to Someone Who Needs It!

 B4B53D6F-9C92-4C30-920B-75FB1D18287AMany of you know that I have a long-term back problem, but perhaps not how serious it is. The warmer weather helps and today we ventured out for a walk along the former railway line, now turned Sustrans bike track. Unfortunately, I was enjoying myself so much that I pushed my body too far and my back seized up by the side of the canal where I had wanted to look at the brightly-coloured barges. I was in a bit of a pickle and knew I couldn’t turn around and go back, nor could I see a bench to perch on while I worked out how get out of this predicament.

I was wondering how on earth I would make it back to the car when I looked up and saw on a ledge a small rock painted with the words: ‘Staffs Smilesstones, please share a pic on FB then rehide me’ with the name of the family who had put it there. It did indeed make me smile, it was such a surprise, sitting there at my eyeline, waiting for me to look up and smile.

This smile and its subsequent break into laughter helped me relax enough to make it to where I needed to go – a nearby pub where I waited while my husband walked back to fetch the car.

When I got back home, and after a few hours’ rest, I looked up Staffs Smilestones and they have a page on Facebook, full of photos of young children with painted stones and cute happy faces, finding and re-hiding the rocks all over Staffordshire for the pure joy of giving someone a smile. I joined their group and will be painting my own rocks very soon.

I am sitting here with a heat pad on my back, having taken some Arnica and smoothed on some Arnica cream, about to go to bed, but wanted to share this story with you.

Here’s a calming photo of a barge drifting along the canal for your Friday night meditation 💜 I love the reflections in the water.

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I’ll be writing a fuller post with lots of photos of our walk when I’m up to it. Oh, and we didn’t get lost!

This story was first shared on Terry’s blog

Copyright: Chris McGowan

27 thoughts on “Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine – Paint a Rock & Give a Smile to Someone Who Needs It!”

  1. Love the painted stones idea. So simple but fun 🙂 Sorry to hear of your back problem. I used magnets a lot. If you want to know more give e a shout. They were a life saver when I had a bad knee problem (thankfully now OK).

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    1. Two hot showers, a lot of Arnica and Devil’s Claw and definitely taking it easy today! Too much galavanting this past week 😄 Yes, I’m going to start hiding stones too! Thank you 😊

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  4. I’m so glad I caught this before I closed the laptop for the evening. Those stones are a wonderful idea, and they obviously do work, as they did with your back issue. (Pity it wasn’t for the long term) I had no idea just how severe your back problem was – I knew it was bad, but for some reason I thought it was intermittent. Did the strenuous house improvements aggravate it somehow? I do hope you get a restful sleep tonight, and that picture is of the barge is quite beautiful! 🙂

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    1. Thank you on all counts 😊 One day I’ll maybe recount something of my story but it is so boring and I prefer to concentrate on the wellness part of my being, because apart from my back issues I really am very well 😊

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      1. I know! 🙂 Its probably the wellness attitude and lifestyle which keeps you so cheery and happy. My husband suffers chronic joint pain, but he just takes a painkiller and marches off up the hills, haha! I think mental attitude goes a long way to helping the physical pain – I’m working on that myself because I can be a bit of a wimp when it comes to pain, sadly.

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      2. I think you’re being a bit hard on yourself 😊 Chronic pain can be so debilitating and really affects your personality, it wears you down and of course you get grumpy and sometimes suicidal when there is no let up. It restricts what you can do and believe me I know this. Unfortunately, money often determines what kind of treatment you can have and your lifestyle. Doctors have no time to investigate properly and hand out pills that are often ineffectual and soemtimes even make things worse because that’s all they can do. I spent years investigating complementary therapies, diet and mental attitude before I found what works for me, but it cost me a fortune (while saving the NHS a similar fortune, but no Brownie points given!).

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