Tree-pit Trolls

Thursday, on my way to work, I passed this note pinned to a tree. It reads: "To whoever left a birthday card for me yesterday -in the treepit- Thank you! Please tell me who you are?" There is nothing I don't love about this. What a lovely idea! Everyone should have a birthday card delivered to the tree-pit outside of their residence. In addition to my amusement at the writer's clever combination of an imperative and interrogative sentence, I love thinking about who this mysterious birthday celebrant may be. The possibilities are endless. Perhaps it was the Travelocity Garden Gnome, some sort of tree-pit troll, Ernie the Keebler Elf, Christa from Fern Gully, maybe even a talented and observant squirrel. We may never know.

This mysterious act of kindness and celebration is intriguing to me for several reasons. First I love greeting cards. I love mailing them, receiving them, collecting them, and making them. I have a growing collection of vintage greeting cards and I make my own as well. In general, small things made of paper are just my favorite.

Second, celebrating people's lives is something that I think there could be more of in this world. The surprise and discovery of finding an unsigned birthday card in a tree is something I think everyone should experience. We all want everyone to know its our special day. We want to know people care and are thinking about us. Having an unidentified person, taking no credit for celebrating you is something really special.

I have been wondering a lot lately about featuring some of the cards I have made and some of the ones I have found on a blog for quite a while now. I have had mixed feelings about the potential for the internet masses to see some of the things I have done. Coming across this thank you note in an unusual spot, in the middle of the work week on an uneventful and miserably warm New York City morning, however, has provided me with the inspiration to go ahead and share my passion and brave the unknown results of letting the world see things I have made.

Making cards is my favorite thing to do. As cringe-worthy as this sentiment is about to be, the truth is that I really like putting my limited creativity and skill into crafting little gems to bestow upon friends and family. I want to make people smile for a minute or two. I also wouldn't mind it if they were to think things like "gee-whiz, that Alicia is handy with the scraps of paper and glue stick".

Greeting cards add a little bit of specialness to the world. I think we all need to stumble across a random birthday card every now and then and celebrate a little bit more.

So here is my contribution to celebration.