Little did I realize that spotting an empty bottle littered on the side of a river bank with my kids Saturday would spark such an idea in me for a post that I hope hope hope my readers will participate in!

As the boys and I were walking around the downtown Denver area over the weekend, we found ourselves strolling along a side walk that lined the river that ran next to us. Along the banks was an empty bottle, in which Logan asked if we could go down to it and see if there was a message inside! While I enjoyed the whimsy of his request, I denied it because it was in fact an empty liquor bottle and not only that, but was very old looking, dirty and too close to the water for our comfort. But, this spotting did promote quite a fun conversation between us about what the message might say if there happened to be one…

I asked the boys what message they would put inside a bottle and set free down the river (or ocean if that was doable). Eli, perhaps not understanding the concept, said he didn’t know. Logan, without hesitation, said “BOO!” We chuckled about it…a lot! How funny would that be? Being the recipient of a message in a bottle that said, “BOO!” I think it’s rather profound actually, in its simplicity.

After the giggles subsided, I asked him what he would really write on his message if it were serious. And he answered, “You will have good fortune.” This sounds promising … AND, also like a fortune cookie and actually, Logan isn’t all that familiar with fortunes inside a fortune cookie (he doesn’t like Chinese food).

So then I had to think of one. And, therein lies the difference I think between free spirited, uninhibited children and grown-ups. The same can be said about praying. I think when children pray, they don’t care how eloquent it sounds or what fancy words they use! During prayer at dinner-time, Eli lists the activities of our day…followed by “AMEN!”

Anyhow, I guess I never came up with an idea for my message because I thought it needed to be deep or something.

We came home and asked Chris what he would write on his message and here is what he said:  Greetings from Chris in Colorado Springs! May your day be blessed. Your goal is to perform one random act of kindness for a total stranger. Have fun!

Oh. That’s a nice one. Way to set the bar, Chris! (Just kidding, babe! Good one!) Now I really didn’t know what to write on my message, if I in fact had one! But all this time, I still knew that this idea would make a cool blog post. But, how could I possibly write a blog post about it without having my own idea of what my message would be?

So now, here I sit, pressure’s on … I still haven’t decided what a good message would be. But it occurs to me, maybe there isn’t any such thing as a “good” message! Just like the old adage says:  the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask! So, here’s some of my ideas as they are arriving in my brain right now!

1. Have you started watching Hawaii Five-0? You should!

2. Have you told your children (spouse, parents, siblings, friends, etc.)  that you love them yet today?

3. Spend quality time with your family.

4. The days are long but the years are short.

5. Happiness is in the heart, not the circumstances.

6. I’m under the same sun/moon as you are!

7. Love yourself.

Ok, there’ are some ideas. Good? It doesn’t matter! Now I want to conduct an experiment to see 1. If I can get any of you to come up with a message for a bottle and jot it down in the comment section and 2. Based on what you respond with, I wonder if there will be a theme between them.

So, please, without further words from me, have at it! And tell your friends! Lets see if we can get some messages going in here!

Thank you! 🙂