Hobby that brought one woman relief now brings joy to others

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - A few months ago, Teresa Taft didn't know how powerful a few small rocks could be.

But, since September, she has seen her Indiana Rocks page on Facebook grow with photos of smiling faces holding up the rocks she has left in random places.

"I just want to make people's day. Make them smile," she said Tuesday as she sat in her rural Clay County home painting colorful designs and Christmas-themed messages on a new group of rocks.

"It keeps my mind off my own problems," she said.

Taft was diagnosed in 2010 with Chiari malformation, a congenital defect that produces structural defects in the cerebellum. As she puts it, her skull is too small for her big brain.

In her case, the effects of the condition include blinding headaches, fatigue, muscle weakness and nausea, among others. It has left her disabled.

So, when a friend introduced her to a painted rock project that people on the West Coast were doing, Taft decided to try it.

She's not an artist, but she is creative, and that's all it takes to turn an ordinary rock into a happy face that can brighten someone else's day. Creativity and a lot of paint, that is.

"I had been in a dark place since I got sick," she said. "When I get in that pain again, I don't want to go to that dark place again, so I try to do this for other people."

She picks up rocks wherever she finds them - along country roads, or as she walks into doctor's offices for medical appointments.

"You just have to wash them if they're dirty," she said. "I know if people saw me standing at the sink washing a bunch of rocks they'd think I'm crazy."

But the responses to the rocks that are posted on her Facebook page Indiana Rocks are what keep her going.

"There's one little boy who said he didn't want to go to his doctor's appointment, but he found a rock and it made it better for him," she said. "That's why I do it."

Last week, she and her boyfriend distributed 130 rocks around Forest Park in Brazil. They tucked them in trees at adult height and hid them at ground level for kids to find.

She has left them at schools, outside stores and hospitals. Wherever she goes lately, she takes a pocketful of rocks and arrives a bit early so she can place the colorful bits.

And she is gratified when she sees other people taking up the project. Rocks have been found in Bloomington, Indianapolis, Vincennes and Terre Haute, as well as Brazil.

"Just think about all the smiles you haven't seen," Taft said as she scrolled through the Facebook page.

For the times she hasn't felt like getting out herself, she has let other people hide the rocks. She can make 30 to 40 per day, and she has made 600 since she started.

She asks people who make their own rocks to share to use a Sharpie pen to write Facebook Indiana Rocks on the underside so that people will go to the page to record their finds.

She recommends letting a freshly painted rock sit for a couple of days to dry, and adding a clear glaze as the final touch so that the paint will withstand the weather.

Anyone wanting an idea of what to paint can Google rock painting, she said, and get all kinds of ideas.

There are groups of Girl Scouts in Vincennes, Greencastle and Illinois who are painting rocks.

The shapes of the rocks often dictate what she paints on it. Many have fun faces, but others have starburst designs of dots and squiggles. Some are animals. Some are objects such as pickles or flowers.

She uses regular craft paint, sometimes paint markers, and pencils to etch into paint.

She even got permission from her 96-year-old grandmother to take a rock from her yard to decorate. Her grandmother now keeps the rock in her house.

But she warns that the act of spreading smiles and kindness through the painted rocks can be addicting.

"I can't go anywhere anymore without seeing a picture in a rock," she said.

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Source: (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star, http://bit.ly/2fZJkql

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Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com