灵感之树

张弛

“我”利用参赛获得的100美元，制作了几棵“我”称之为“The Inspiration Tree”的装置，人们可以从树上取走带有他人创意的作品，再把自己的作品悬挂上去，这样人们就可以实现互动，让爱与灵感在人与人之间分享传递。

I was very fortunate to receive $100 for a monthly kindness contest last month. With it I built a large installation （装置） I called The Inspiration Tree.

The concept is simple. I took a lot of fallen branches that I had been gathering on walks and hung them from the ceiling with the help of volunteers and friends. Then we hung strings with clothespins attached to them from the branches. I got a whole lot of art supplies and as people came in for the art exhibit， they were encouraged to create a piece of art or a positive message to hang from the tree.

The tree transformed into this really fun way of exchanging positive messages. If you were to hang a message up， you had to take a message down for you to keep. The experience was really amazing. People of all ages and from all walks of life were sharing art and inspiration through the tree.

I made a total of seven more trees， most of which have helped to make a beautiful difference in peoples lives. I took one to a school where I am student teaching in a 6th grade special education classroom. The students have already been using the tree on a daily basis to encourage themselves to write and learn to spell， and to spread kindness by leaving positive messages for other students to have. I am putting the other trees all over our community. One will go to a youth shelter for homeless teens and one will be put right in the middle of town on our public square. They will have paper and art supplies at the base for people to use in creating a message or piece of art. The idea is to create interactions that are positive and can influence peoples lives in great ways just by doing a simple act of kindness. The messages people receive can be kept with them? selves forever as a reminder of the good in the world， or they can pass them along to others. The beauty of the concept is that the potential of the messages have unlimited possibilities， helping me spread kindness in the world.