A month of hearts: February 12

I found this chalk-drawn heart in a parking lot in Bellingham yesterday afternoon. It's not a picture I would normally take. Why? There's a black shadow moving through it. There's a painted white line at the top. The picture's wonky. It's messy. Normally I would throw out something like this.

Except. Except there's something about it I like. Maybe it's because I gave my students an assignment many years ago to find and photograph hearts. And once given that assignment, it sticks with one over the years.

Maybe it's because it's whimsical. Someone with two different colors of chalk quickly scribbled a heart on the street, added a smile and two eyes and moved on. It won't last long in the rainy Pacific Northwest, so maybe the fact that it's a short-lived bit of whimsy is what's appealing.

Or maybe in our divisive, angry, snarky political climate, it's a cute, simple, quickly scribbled spark of joy and happiness.

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