It was another hot and sticky morning – and depressingly gray.

It was one of those days when you put your head down and get to work.

And thank goodness! Because while my head was facing down toward a sidewalk in Granville, I saw a ray of sunshine amid the tufts of grass around the trunk of a tree.

Someone had left a painted rock! It was smiling at me!

And I smiled back.

What a gift to start a depressingly gray day.

Have a Bright Spot to share? Send it to Managing Editor Julia Lerner (lernerj@denison.edu). Tell us about the moment that made you smile in under 200 words, and try to include a photograph. We’ll add it to our growing list of Bright Spots on TheReportingProject.org!

Alan Miller

Alan Miller teaches journalism and writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University's Journalism Program. He is the former executive editor of The Columbus Dispatch and former Regional Editor for Gannett's 21-newsroom USAToday Network Ohio.