Colorado Springs artist, poet shares inspiration on downtown sidewalks

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- If you watch your step while walking around downtown Colorado Springs, you may stumble across inspiration you didn't know you needed -- thanks to one Springs artist and poet, Kalani LeSane.

"Every day, I wake up and I go and put a chalk quote on the sidewalk," explain LeSane.

LeSane started this passion project three years ago.

"I needed something that reminded me to wake up every morning and find a purpose," she says.

"I was like, you have to get into something that's beneficial. I looked in the closet and found the chalk, and was like, "yep, that's it.""

Since beginning, LeSane has walked the streets of downtown Colorado Springs with a daily, self-imposed task of inspiring others, with nothing more than her box of assorted colored chalk. Each morning, she picks a quote that resonates with her or feels relevant to what she or someone she knows is going through, and writes it down for anyone who may stumble by.

"I pick it based on what I'm feeling that day, or what I feel like someone may need to hear that day." LeSane explains.

Her Instagram page, @chalkythoughts, shows her daily work. LeSane says often time, strangers reach out to her to simply say, thank you.

"My goal every day is to inspire at least one person," she says.

"I didn't really think a lot of people paid attention to it, but they do, and it makes a difference for me and for them."

LeSane says she has a few favorite quotes she's chalked out.

"I think my favorite one is, the grass is greener where you water it. I think a lot of people forget that if we aren't watering our own lives, there's no way we can grow. So, if you're focusing so much on someone else's, then you're not nourishing your own."

Today's quote can be found on Bijou and Tejon, in front of The Candy Bar.

"Go laugh in the places you've cried. Change the narrative."

LeSane says, the point is for everyone to take what they need from these quotes. For her, today's quote means that, sometimes, home is a person, not a place. She explains further, stating that just because you have a bad relationship with someone, doesn't mean amends can't be made -- referring to a personal relationship of her own that was once in ruin, but now thrives.

LeSane says, "By changing the narrative, you change your life."