I’m on the board of a non-profit called Art on Sedgwick that, among other things, seeks to use art as a way to build bridges in a neighborhood in Chicago where there is a drastic socioeconomic divide. We had a meeting yesterday and I was asked to lead other board members in an ice-breaker exercise and I invited everyone to either write a prayer for or letter to children who will be taking art classes at AOS. I looked around the room and saw this sidewalk chalk and used it to wrote a blessing of sorts:

May the dust from this chalk float into every crevice and pore of you. May those magical particles come to rest on the hairs of your arm and journey into your nose so that you sneeze with delight. May you wipe the residue from your concrete masterpiece from your small hands onto your faded jeans so that your caregiver asks, What happened here? and you can speak of the time you drew purple horses and orange trucks and pink trees. The time you provided squiggly beauty to the neighborhood. May your telling of your Art Creation Story be like those dust particles and settle onto your caregiver so that it remains with her, long after you’ve gone off to your next imagining.