When you need a little inspiration, sometimes you just have to know where to look.
As part of NBC’s Season of Kindness, we worked with chalk artist Hans Honschar, who makes it his mission to brighten New Yorkers’ days, one sidewalk message at a time.
Honschar was strictly a poet before he was inspired by the chalk artist Francois Pelletier, who creates painstaking reproductions of classical art in sidewalk chalk. He started writing inspiring messages in 2000, and says his secret to success is "always keep it positive."
For our kind words, we took inspiration from sources including the Dalai Lama, Pablo Picasso, Mark Twain and Cinderella.
Honschar drew crowds as he chalked messages around Times Square and other New York sidewalks.
"I’m always a crowd stopper," he told TODAY. "People will stop in their tracks whatever they’re doing and they’ll kind of be in awe of the human typewriter. They’re always curious what the message will be. Usually I let them wait until I’m finished."
NBC’s Season of Kindness is 40 days of making the world a better place by celebrating acts of kindness big and small.
"Kindness is the first step to greatness. You can’t have greatness without being kind," Honschar said. "So I always try to keep it positive and uplifting."
Share our kind words with the hashtag #ShareKindness and visit our daily calendar to learn about other simple, easy-to-do kind acts and mark off the ones you've done.
This story is part of NBCUniversal's Season of Kindness. Together we can grow the good this holiday season. Follow the series on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. #ShareKindness