Can you imagine the pure joy on a ten year old's face as soon as you tell them that they are allowed to write on the walls. That they have the freedom to do whatever they want. They can write their names, draw pictures, write stories and make gifts; they can break the rules that have always been set for them. That's what my house allowed my friends to do. It gave them an opportunity to break the rules without getting into trouble.
We have an unfinished basement with concrete walls that could have been sad and ignored, but instead we turned it into a forest of colors and painted the walls with chalk. Every friend that came over would first get to write their name, but then you saw them come alive. They would grip the piece of chalk a little bit tighter and then they'd write their name even bigger. Some of them would write it as tall as they were.
Others would just scribble on the walls like they were toddlers again. Everybody would grin and laugh like they'd been eating candy for hours on end.
Then, as soon as their parents came to pick them up, they'd stand up tall, look them in the eye and proudly state, "I wrote on the walls today." My mom would laugh and refuse to explain as my friends let their parents squirm under the pressure of possibly having to apologize for their child and then having to pay to repaint a wall.
A lot of the chalk has faded away now, it is just a little bit of colored dust on a concrete wall after all.
The writing on the walls is temporary, but it paved the path to some amazing friendships. Friendships that were formed by drawing on walls and feeling free for the first time.
