A Leesburg home has been called “the happiest place in Loudoun.”
That’s been one of the most delightful comments for graphic artist Margie Hunter who lives at the Graywood Way home located within the Potomac Crossing neighborhood. A “Rainbow Tree” now stands as the pillar to her kindness project that radiates from her front lawn.
The tree is Hunter’s most recent addition to her art installment to promote kindness in the community. Hunter sewed and hand placed vibrant crocheted squares in blue, yellow, green, and orange on the tree to welcome visitors to the path of her “Kindness Rocks Garden.”
Hunter said she wanted to have a permanent place where people could come for inspiration and share kind messages of their own. She launched the garden in August.
“Seeing the reactions to the kindness rocks garden made me a better person,” said Hunter. “I was doing good. I was making people happy. The rainbow tree was just the icing on the cake.”
Hunter’s journey to spread kindness began in 2018 when someone wrote graffiti outside her home.
“I remember the moment so clearly,” she said. “I was sitting at my desk, in office, which overlooks my front yard, when a boy walked down the sidewalk, bent down and wrote a terrible message to my nine-year-old daughter, on our sidewalk.”
She recalled washing the words away before her daughter, or anyone else would see. Although erased, she said she couldn’t shake them from her thoughts. This sparked Hunter to start chalking uplifting messages on her sidewalk as a response to the bully and to promote kindness.
“It’s all about kindness- to others and to ourselves,” she explained.
Hunter said there are many teachable lessons for her and her daughter, who is now 13. They learned that “the best revenge is just being happy and the best way to find that happiness is to treat others as we want to be treated.”
Hearing and seeing the joy that the garden brings to others is very rewarding, added Hunter. With a permanent sanctuary, she hopes that no stone will be left unturned to teach kindness in Loudoun.
One of her favorite messages she has written is, “the noblest art is that of making others happy,” and Hunter said this explains why she’s created and will continue to grow the kindness project.
