Stones

I love stones.  As a young child I was always collecting stuff, stones, feathers, small creatures.  In elementary school I once kept a small toad in my pencil case.  I kept it there just for the day.  I did let it go before it died. 

When I was young, my family would go to the mountains in the summers on vacation.  I remember one summer collecting small salamanders.  They were called red efts, very beautiful delicate small orange creatures with red dots in 2 rows across their backs.   I tried to bring home a pair.  My parents were very tolerant of my hobbies.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know what to feed them, and neither did my parents.  There was no internet for easily acquiring that information.  They died.  I learned a powerful lesson about collecting things that were alive. 

 

After that, I didn’t bring home live things unless I learned how to care for them.   That didn’t mean I didn’t catch them for temporary enjoyment.  I once captured a garter snake.  I fed it chopped meat on a string.  Then I found a large toad, at least 5 times as large as this snake’s head.  I thought, “no way the snake could eat him.”  They could be companions. 

From the other room, I heard my sister screaming one morning.  The snake had grabbed the toad by one back leg.  We watched as the snake slowly crawled with each small movement of its 4-hinged jaw over that toad.  Expanding its head and body until there was just a big lump in its middle.  Very cool!  Another lesson learned. 

Early scientists would collect things.  They would try to classify them visually.  As scientists we still do this to some extent. 

I remember visiting a museum and we had a special visit to the collections area.  They showed us hundreds of preserved birds in little boxes, each just a little different than the others, variations of one species.   Currently, we also classify using DNA technology.  But, with ancient bones, from many creatures including proto-humans, we still use morphology, the study of shapes and sizes.  

I like hunting for stones.  Shells are fun too.  But there is something about stones.  Maybe you take a small one home as a reminder of your trip.  Maybe you just keep it for a few hours and leave it at the end of your hike.  The enjoyment is in the hunt. 

I am not a hunter in the traditional sense.  I like target shooting (Heretic!  You betray your liberal upbringing!).  But I don’t hunt and kill creatures.  My family did not hunt.  I never grew up hunting.  I never grew up with firearms either.  But, I was a natural hunter even as a child. 

When I am out in nature I notice the birds.  I follow the tracks of animals in the sand or in the snow.   I am a photographer.   I love to shoot animals with my camera.  It is like hunting to me.  When I was a little kid I would stalk animals, sometimes to capture them.  Often they were too fast for capture.  I never threw stones or made a bow and arrow to try and kill them. 

I remember a story about someone who took a stone from a sacred mountain in Hawaii.   He had bad luck until he brought the stone back.  I think about that when I collect stones.  I try to think, if everyone took a stone from this place would it make a difference? 

I have heard people speak about sacred places.  Places of power.  Is that inherent in certain locations, part of the structure of the earth?  Are there lines of power in the earth? 

I like to think that places are sacred, because we think they are.  I like to think about the power of the mind.  Most sacred places are places of beauty.  Natural beauty.  Awe-inspiring places. 

Can we be in awe of any place where we are, at any given moment?  Does an individual brain have that power?  I think it does.   I think the human brain influences others in the world, in the Universe (Oh, you heretic of traditional science!).  

I like Michael Grab’s work http://www.gravityglue.com.  He makes beauty out of balancing stones, like Andy Goldsworthy, his work is ephemeral.  But, for those moments of perfect balance, that location has been transformed. 

Sacred places likely move our brains toward that enlightened state of being.  Perhaps just for a few moments, we stop and gaze around, drink in the beauty.  For a moment, we are one with all that is.  Then we usually get lost in the past or in the future.  But for that moment we are transported to another wonderful state of being. 

When I bring a stone back with me I capture a small bit of that place to remind me of the beauty of that place.  I can hold that stone and be transported back to that moment of stillness, that moment of being fully present.  I really don’t need the stone. 

This practice of mindfulness.  This practice of being still.  That is the groove we develop in the brain.  That groove that allows the mind to be still, to be fully present in this moment.  Over and over again. 

Like a film-strip, who remembers filmstrips?  Can we be the space between the frames?