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The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
The Blessing Post: Reviving Community Connections Through Handwritten Kindness
Have you ever paused to consider the power of a simple handwritten note? Join us as we explore this lost art with Don Prisby, the heart and soul behind the Blessing Post, a remarkable community initiative that has warmed his neighborhood since 2018. Positioned right in Don's backyard, this wooden post serves as a gathering spot for neighbors to exchange heartfelt letters, sparking genuine connections and reviving personal communication in a digital age. Listen to Don share his passion for handwritten encouragement and discover how this modest project has fostered a vibrant, caring community, proving that small acts of kindness can have a lasting impact.
In this uplifting episode of the Kindness Matters podcast, we dive into the nuts and bolts of building and maintaining a Blessing Post, from the logistics of city easements to the creative flair of designing a logo. Learn about the spontaneous joy it has sparked—neighbors making snow angels together—and the remarkable absence of vandalism, highlighting the community's respect and love for this beacon of goodwill. We also introduce you to the Mayday Media Network, offering a platform for those looking to share their voices. So, settle in and be inspired by the uplifting ripple effect one man's simple idea has had on his entire community.
#community #writing #notes #inspiration
This podcast is a proud member of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and need some production assistance or have a podcast and are looking for a supportive network to join, check out maydaymedianetwork.com.
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Well, hello there and welcome. You are listening to the Kindness Matters podcast and I am your host, mike Rathbun. What is this podcast all about? It's about kindness. It's a pushback against everything negative that we see in the news and on social media today, and it's a way to highlight people, organizations, that are simply striving to make their little corner of the world a little better place. If you want to join in on the conversation, feel free, Go ahead and follow us on all of your social media feeds. We're on Facebook, instagram, tiktok. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out. And, in the meantime, so sit back, relax, enjoy and we'll get into the Kindness Matters podcast.
Speaker 1:Hey, welcome to the show everybody. I am so glad that you are giving me some of your time today to listen to this podcast and listen to this interview, and if there's anything in the podcast that you find inspirational or motivational or just anything positive, make sure to share it with your friends and family. I would really appreciate it, really appreciate it. So great show for you today. If you remember the thrill of a handwritten note from a secret admirer, or you remember the warmth you felt when your mom would put a note in your lunch bag. You're going to like my guest today. In this day and age of digital communication, don Prisby has made it possible to exchange positive words of goodwill by hand. He is the inventor of the Blessing Post, a literal post in his backyard, along a neighborhood path, where passerby can receive and leave personal notes of encouragement and blessing. Welcome to the show today, don. So nice to have you.
Speaker 2:Mike, thank you. It's great to be here and what an exciting opportunity to share some good news.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we could all use some good news right about now. Right, absolutely, there is never not a time for good news. I think it's just yeah, I mean, people are stressed out and wondering what's going to happen and all that good stuff in the world, and we're here to tell you it's going to be okay. Absolutely. I absolutely love this story. I'm going to name drop. I saw you on KSTP the story about your blessing post and I'm like I have got to talk to this man and find out what's going on Because again, in a world where sometimes it seems kind of dark, that was such a bright light, that story. So talk to me a little bit about why did you decide to do this?
Speaker 2:Sure, well, mike, the Blessing Post, as you know, is just. It's a post in my backyard, right along a path that goes by my house, and years ago, I was thinking you know, we live in this digital world where digital communication is the norm and it separates us. And I was thinking, you know what about that time when we used to just share notes back and forth you know, as you said at the intro, that a Valentine's, or a secret admirer, or when your mom tucked that note in your lunch and I thought could we get back to that? And I thought I'll put a post in my backyard for a place for people to receive and leave notes of a positive goodwill. And that was back in May of 2018, seven years ago now, and thousands of people have seen it and have received notes and left notes, and it's just been a wonderful social experiment, but something that's really transforming the neighborhood.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure I could see how that would. Yeah, it is. It's so easy for us to just. I'm even to the point I think I'm getting as bad as the kids, to the point where I'm like don't call me, just text me. Or even something like a phone call is kind of going by the wayside these days.
Speaker 2:Or don't you love it when you get a birthday text? Oh, that makes me so. I feel so warm.
Speaker 1:I get all the warm fuzzies. Yeah, I know, I get a text from my brother-in-law, and it's always Veterans Day. I get a text and thank you-in-law, and it's always Veterans Day. I get a text and thank you for your service.
Speaker 1:Okay, and birthdays, yes, and yeah, it really is kind of a lost art sending notes or cards or what have you, because I'm sure and I don't remember, I don't know how many of my listeners will remember, but being and yes, you had to make us do it, but make it writing thank you cards when you got something for birthday or Christmas. Oh, I got it right, grandma, thank you card or thank you note. But and as much as I hated being made to do that when I was a kid, I kind of miss it now it's a.
Speaker 2:It's a lovely thing to receive a note. It really it. It it tells you that somebody sat down, took some time and actually hand wrote something. Um, it is a lost art and it's a lost experience. Today, the norm is to be efficient, to send texts or emails. Even signing up for church events, you sign up by their website. We just keep getting further and further apart and it becomes a norm and we don't realize that. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:I spoke with a woman from I want to say she's in Plymouth, but that might be you, I don't know. She's out in that area. One Good Deed is the name of her nonprofit, and they do things all year round. But one of the things they do is they get together and they make cards, valentine cards for senior homes. Oh, what a great idea, isn't that a great idea? Yeah, but this is kind of like that, except it's just in one place. So when you first started it talk about, you had actual note notes, right.
Speaker 2:Right, right, it made a transition. So from 2017 till COVID, we actually had notes. I printed notes. They were blank cards and we put them in the box. The first person left a message, then the next person coming down the block saw that and that took that message for themselves. And you know, we had the banker's pen with the chain.
Speaker 2:So, they could take a blank note out and write a note and pin it back on. So receive one, leave one, and over that time I approximated about 500 exchanges of notes and that was just a wonderful experience. And then when COVID hit, you know, no one wanted to touch anything. So I transformed it into a large chalkboard where on the top I could write a weekly message, and then on the bottom, right down to the grass, so the little kids could do it. And that's where the chalk box was. It was the area, the area for people to respond.
Speaker 2:So around the seasons, you know, at school opening, I'd say what's your favorite class? Or who's your favorite teacher, what's your favorite school? Or at Halloween, what's your favorite candy? Or or on election day, who are you voting for? No, I didn't do that. But Christmas time white Christmas or not, you know question mark and people would say yes or no.
Speaker 2:And then in the spring, things like Valentine's Day how many hearts can we draw? And kids would be out there just drawing hearts with chalk. One other one in the summertime is how many smiley faces can we leave Nice? So it just gets people of all ages involved and as you walk down the path you can see the message at a distance, so you have time to think about it and then get there and there's a path leading up to it, so there's a sense of welcoming and then you can respond and it's just a wonderful way to reach out to the neighborhood and look at it. Over time, mike, I based it on like 20 visits a week, or 20 sites a week, you know, fewer in the winter but much more in the summer. That's 47 000 people, 47 000 views of the blessing post over its seven years of existence my goodness and and 47 000 lives made better.
Speaker 1:I would say, let's hope. Yeah, I mean, you know, know who could not pass by that? And even if they didn't participate, you know, they see that how many smiles can we draw? That's got to be uplifting or, you know, make you feel warm, like that note from your mom in your lunch bag. You see that, and maybe you don't have time or maybe you're in a hurry or what have you, and you don't have time to throw a smiley face up there, but you leave that place feeling a little bit better about the day, I would imagine.
Speaker 2:It's really infectious how people get involved with it. And here's what's happening, mike, like in the wintertime. There is a guy who lives up at the cul-de-sac. He mows the neighborhood path and he snowblows a path right to the blessing post, so he's taking care of it that way. Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:So you've got the whole neighborhood involved care of it that way.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, so you got the whole neighborhood involved. Yeah, one day a young family came by with their stroller and a little girl brought up a box of chalk and said Mr Prisby, here's a box of chalk from our family. And that was just so. It made my heart happy.
Speaker 2:And then one other time a church youth group had nominated the Blessing Post as one of the ways that we make the world better and they gave me a Target gift card which I went and I purchased chalk for it More chalk. So it's just wonderful how it inspires people to just do positive things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because kindness is like that right, you do a one kind act and it ripples out endlessly really to so many other people and so many other things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Jim, just like your podcast. I'm sure it's getting all kinds of adulations for spreading just good words.
Speaker 1:And you know that was part of the reason I started it. You know you don't have to look too far to find bad news, right, and I wanted to be a place where somebody could come to feel a little lighter, if only for 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And maybe be inspired. Have you ever, have people ever said to you Mr Prisby, can I do one? I mean, do you know of others?
Speaker 2:out there I don't know of others and at one time, Mike, I thought this would be such an easy thing to expand and we could put them all over the world, but as things went by I just there was something nice about it being just an organic thought that there's just one blessing post and it's in my backyard in Plymouth, Minnesota, and it's just taking care of the neighbors. I do have a blessing, a website's theblessingpostorg. Okay, so if people wanted to go and see that, they certainly could.
Speaker 1:We will absolutely have a link to it in the show notes. Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of like a little free library.
Speaker 2:You know those sprouted up all over the place.
Speaker 1:Yes, I would love to see something like this in every single neighborhood, wouldn't it be fun?
Speaker 2:And also I could see these in long-term care facilities where people are kind of in a community. There could be one in the lobby where kind notes could be shared by the residents, or, you know, in a college dormitory as a means to unite the students as they come in. There's all kinds of ways to do it. And I mean, as you saw that it was on KSTP. You know it's just recently got some other news. It was in a magazine called Minnesota Catholic in their recent edition, and a couple of years ago it was in Plymouth magazine. So people have learned about it and you know, if they wanted to do it, I would encourage them to do it. It's very simple thing to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's I. Just, I absolutely love every aspect of this thing because you're touching people and you're making somebody's day a little brighter, and really that's all we can. I mean, if we can do that every day, right, because I think deep down we're all kind of called to be a light in somebody else's life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we have an inherent call to goodness. And yet, you know, we get into the pace of digital communications and into the pace of our remote workplaces and into the pace of long work hours and, all of a sudden, the norm is no longer a friendly smile and a kind word. The norm is look, I'll text you when I can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I might see you if I can.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly. So where does the blessing post go from here? Does it get bigger? Do you anticipate it changing at all?
Speaker 2:I think I it's been. It's been here for seven years. I have had friends on both coasts of the country. I have a friend in Canada who said that she was interested in putting one up on a path by her yard. So maybe it's going to be the Blessing Post International, Canada and the US. But I don't know. I would have to put some energy into that. I do know that it probably needs another coat of paint, so I'll be doing that in the spring and I'm also going to plant a Blessing Post garden, a garden around it, Because it's really powerful to watch young families or older folks out on walks. They come and they stop and look at it. I also want to create an environment where they can just rest and just have a time to pause and just reflect on their day, and if the Blessing Post has a garden with it, that might be a way to enhance that experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, maybe a bench.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a bench?
Speaker 1:yeah, Would that, and do you get into trouble? The city doesn't have a problem with it or anything.
Speaker 2:Well, what I did was I checked with the city and I knew there was an eight-foot easement on the path next to my property, so I made sure I measured in so it was actually in my yard, not on the easement. And the other thing I did and for anyone who's going to do a blessing post, check with the electrical companies and the utilities, because I called them and they came out and they sprayed my yard to where the underground wires and pipes were, because when I put the post in, you know I needed about three feet of a spike to go in and then the blessing post sits on that. So I checked with the utilities and then I made sure that the city wouldn't be protesting, that I was on the easement, so it is in my yard. So that was. Those were just considerations to be aware of.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, yeah, always check before you dig.
Speaker 2:Check before you dig. That sounds good. Well, here's another thing, mike. Because I am a marketer, I paid to have a logo designed and then all the cards and all the signage I had professionally done. Just because you know branding and logos or you know, when you're a marketer you kind of appreciate those things. So it has a definitive look and feel to it.
Speaker 1:I did not even notice that. When I was looking at your website, I did not notice that. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I didn't notice the logo.
Speaker 2:Oh, for heaven's sakes, maybe it's there's a logo on the front of it, and then I have a large like two-by-three sign out there with the logo on it, designed by a local guy who's very talented, and I was just delighted that he was part of that.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sure. And all of these people that get involved with the Blessing Post, from the little girl who brought chalk to the guy who snowblows the path to the guy who did your logo, I mean, they were all. They saw something positive in being involved in your project, right?
Speaker 2:Again, it's so alluring. People respond to kindness, just as you know, Mike, with your web, you know with your podcast. People want to express kindness and if we give them the opportunity to do that, they will. One time I was away for a while and I didn't get out on that one Sunday to create a new sign, a new message, and I went out there to do that and somebody else in the neighborhood had taken that role. Oh really, they put a new sign up. And then and then another time it had snowed and I walked out there and a couple of people had made snow angels in around the blessing post and it was just so endearing to see that.
Speaker 1:So when it's not spring and you don't have flowers, you have snow angels no angels, let's let's hope that continues yeah, well, it's going to this weekend, I think oh, it is. That's what I've heard, Well you don't hear it in. Minnesota. Yeah, I know right, I can't tell it could be anything.
Speaker 2:Anything.
Speaker 1:Shoot. I had another question in my head and I forgot it.
Speaker 2:No worries.
Speaker 1:For you? No, it truly is it truly is.
Speaker 2:It's fun. I mean, I put it in a place where I can look out my kitchen window and see it and see people stopping and interacting with it. Now here's an interesting fact. You'd think it would be a risk to put something out in a public area where people are going to interact with it. No, would it be damaged, would there be graffiti put on it, would people write something that was vulgar or out of, in poor taste? And in the seven years that it's been out there, not once has that happened.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. That's incredible. That's incredible because, yeah, I mean, as I don't know, I don't want to say it's human nature, but maybe, as far as kids are concerned, for example I'm sure you have plenty of teens in the neighborhood it's almost like too tempting to not do something. I have never done this myself, but you know what people do to mailboxes and whatnot. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And yet I think they sent something so good in the post that they wouldn't dare. It does well. It could be that it could be that um one other element of it. So at night it does.
Speaker 2:It is illuminated because I have a solar light on the top I was going to ask about that so you, all times of the day, you can see it, and I'm not saying that scares away the ruffians, but people have just been very kind and gentle with it and it's there. I haven't touched it for seven years. It's just steadily planted in the ground. I have a rock step path that goes up to it and I've got the beginnings of a garden around it which will be expanded this year, and it should just continue to go on and on and on.
Speaker 1:Maybe we call it the blessing garden post. Yeah, I don't know. No, the post is the main thing, so yeah, yeah Well, everyone sees the double entendre there.
Speaker 2:right, it's a post, but you also post.
Speaker 1:Oh, I did not catch that because I'm not very bright.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:No, that's fantastic. No, that's fantastic. And, Don, I really, really, really appreciate the time that you've taken today to come up and chat with me. I absolutely love everything about the Blessing Post and folks. If you're ever out in the Plymouth area and you want to stop by and take a look at it, I'm sure Don would love to have you. Not that I'm going to send a lot of people to your house, Don.
Speaker 2:Well, it's on the path that connects Yellowstone Lane from Cottage Grove Court. Oh, okay, implement In the neighborhood of Saddlebrook.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'll sneak out there and I'll do something silly like put balloons on it or something.
Speaker 2:Perfect, you are most welcome. Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:You're so, so welcome. I appreciate you and I appreciate what you're doing and you're making the world a better place, sir.
Speaker 2:Step by step, mike, let's do that. All right, it's a deal. All right, better place, sir.
Speaker 1:Step by step, mike, let's do that.
Speaker 2:All right, it's a deal. All right, be well, sir. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 1:All right, bye-bye. I want to thank you for taking this time to listen to this episode with my guest, don Prisby. I hope that you are able to take something positive from the time you spent here. Maybe you'll be inspired, maybe you'll be motivated to put a blessing post up in your neighborhood, maybe you'll be moved. If you experienced any of those positive feelings, please consider sharing this podcast with your friends and family. I'm always striving to offer you a better podcast, so give me some feedback. Let me know how you think I'm doing. You can email me, leave a message on my socials it would mean the world to me and also feel free to follow us on our socials like Facebook, instagram, linkedin, tiktok, you name it.
Speaker 1:This podcast is part of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and need some production assistance, or if you have a podcast and are looking for a supportive network to join, check out maydaymedianetworkcom and check out the many different shows, like Afrocentric Spoil, my Movie Generation Mixtape In a Pickle Radio Show, wake Up and Dream with D Anthony Palin, staxo, pax and the Time Pals. We'll be back again next week with a new episode and we would be honored if you would join us. You've been listening to the Kindness Matters Podcast. I am your host, mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
