Leaving Rome, I spent a night in Chiusi, then made my way to Sarteano.
After walking through the town, I planned to take a bus to Radicofani. But the bus for that day was already gone.
To be precise, it was cancelled on their end.
Sarteano
Lost and exhausted, I sat down on the ground right next to the bus stop.
Head down, thinking there was nothing to be done, something caught the edge of my vision. A small, painted stone sitting on the ground.
I picked it up and turned it over. On the back, in Italian, were the words "Sassi Girelloni," meaning wandering stones.
I would find out later that it was a project by a mother and daughter named Sonia and Anita, who painted stones and left them around town to bring smiles to strangers.
Little Wanderer
Sassi Girelloni by Sonia , Anita
I cannot explain why.
But the moment I read those words on that small stone, something stirred deep inside me.
"Where should I take this stone?"
That feeling of excitement was enough to make me stand up again.
I decided to try hitchhiking.
With little expectation, I put out my thumb. A car stopped almost right away.
Inside were three young people heading in the same direction.
My body had felt heavy just moments before. Now I could have jumped for joy.
Watching the countryside pass by, we talked about each other's dreams, and before long we had arrived in Radicofani.
Radicofani Fortress
From that day, the stone and I began traveling together.
We left Radicofani and walked for days through the hills and small villages of Tuscany, then took buses north to Bolzano and Lana.
Through landscapes and places nothing like each other, the stone has now crossed the sea and come back to Japan with me.
Peaceful Solitude
Still Cowbell
Objectively, it is just a stone from the side of the road, and missing the bus was nothing more than bad luck.
But what is interesting about people is that we can find meaning in anything, and give it a story.
How you see the world, and what story you give it, is entirely up to you. And to live life actively, that power to find meaning matters more than almost anything.
If anything, it may be the moment when real intelligence is tested.
Cypress Alley
A stone placed by an Italian mother and daughter with the simple wish to make someone smile pulled a stranger from Asian backpacker onto his feet, and led him to the kindness of people he had never met.
A small act of creativity or kindness can send ripples wide enough to completely change the view of someone's life, someone whose face you will never know.
The world is perhaps full of small kindnesses that someone set in motion, and the imagination of the people who notice them.
Where should I take that stone next.
Or maybe now it is my turn to leave a small beginning at someone else's feet.
Toward the Next Story
