Every time I go to the bay or the river or the little park or to the ocean beach…well, frankly anywhere…I pick up rocks to bring home. It’s something I did as a child then lost to adulting and have now regained.
Part of what started this hobby-habit up again is that I spotted a rock among freshly-laid gravel driveway. It was a little planet rock, looking like a little galaxy in a single stone. I have written about it before here: Third Rock from the Sun.
I tend to favor smooth, white, rounded stones and wish rocks. Kind of like in the movie Somethings Gotta Give:
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| Photo nipped from interwebs, real photo below |
I was starting to accumulate too many of those so I had to do something differently. I began to think about a particular kind of rock or stone that I wanted. Setting my intention for each walk as “I want a green rock” or “I want a striped rock.”
The fun thing about setting an intention is that most often I find what I’m looking for. Sometimes not and that’s disappointing but mostly successful. The literal biggest one happened when I first began being intentional about it. I wanted a green rock. We were at the bay and sure enough there was a green rock poking up out of the sand. I scuffed it with my foot and it didn’t pop up easily. Because look:
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| It was heavy to carry around the beach but absolutely worth it |
One time I found another planet rock and it looked kind of like Mars. I brought it home then couldn’t find it and it was annoying me to no end. Cleaned the trucks, went through all my hoodie pockets, repacked both go-bags for Lucy. I even returned to the beach where I found it – the one with the rock sculptures – in the ridiculously vain hope that I would find it. I didn’t, of course.
Weeks went by and I realized in the middle of the night where it was. When I bring home rocks that turn out to be not as I thought they might be, I put them out in the rock garden. They fill in rather nicely amongst all the sharp stones. Sure enough: there it was. I had accidentally tossed it out.
Discovering it in the rock garden put another idea into my head. One that I haven’t quite put into action yet. There is a creek bordering our property with plenty of larger round stones. Many of them were disturbed when they did the creek remediation and I can just walk down and pluck them out of the grass. That, however, is a lot of work and will be something I can do over the summer.
The other issue is that I need to have places for these treasures. I repurposed a clear planter/vase/thing first. Then it was full. I repurposed a planter that held succulents which I continually killed and now it’s full. I tried a leather-bound box that a gift came in years ago and it’s full.
The other day I had the genius idea to grab a canning jar and plunk only white rocks into it. I loved it so I did another one, this time with mixed media; rocks, feathers, and shells. I will definitely continue to do that until I find another way. Right now I have a pile of rocks on my desk that I’ve left there because I’m enjoying them. However, they need to find a home.
Well, what really needs to happen is I need to cull some of my rocks out into the garden. But my brain isn’t down with that idea completely yet so here we are. Then I realized that I have vintage glass bowls stored in forgotten cupboards. I'm certain that my ancestors didn't intend this as a use for their prized Sunday Family Dinner bowls but here we are.
Also, part of what prompted these little collections is a book I read last year. The main character was an artist who made shadow boxes of items found on the beach. The hardcover featured photos of these boxes and I was further intrigued:
So, here's the thing: I have a eleventy hundred rocks and I will always be picking up more. If any of you would like a special rock, let me know and I'll send it to you. (free, this is a fun thing for me) Want a wish rock? A planet rock? A purple rock? A flat rock? All of them? I will happily and gladly go on a search for you. Just know that I am crap at finding agates so please don't ask and sea glass isn't a thing here. Anything else, let me know.
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