Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Rocks of Love

I was reminded the other day of how loved I am when my mother, sister-in-law and kids went for an evening walk and came by to visit. Even on that short walk, my niece remembered how much she loved me. “Tata, I brought these for you.” While walking over, she found these beautiful raw, uncut, fresh-from-the-earth quartz.

This is not new to me. I have two grown kids that were just as generous too when they were tots. Christopher would come in from playing outside in the yard with a little dirty gray rock and present it to me with a kiss.  Later, we would go hiking on the weekends, gorgeous variegated jasper all around and my daughter Mackenzie would smile with chubby cheeks of joy as she handed me a dirty gray piece of shale. By the time she figured out the pretty stones were what we were picking up, she had decided picking up rocks was altogether stupid.

Rock love runs in the family. Ten years later, my nephews continued this practice. And now, last but not least, my niece has continued in this wondrous tradition, never dropping the torch. Now Mackenzie smiles with glee when I receive my rocks of love, “Tata loves those, you know.” Thank you, dear.

It is a sign, though, that my niece is growing up as she’s able to differentiate between rocks and concrete ...
Two Peas in a Pod, smiling

...because I’ve gotten that in the past (“Oh my, so beautiful,” look at it admiringly, keep smiling, “Let’s put it someplace special,” place gray rocks and concrete on the piano with the travel souvenirs, “It’s wonderful, thank you so much,” make mental note to throw them back outside for future tokens of love and smack Mackenzie for that evil giggle).

P.S. – Someday: grandchildren, rock love, and then I will do the evil giggle!

5 comments:

  1. love the post...I too have rocks children have given me years ago. I put them in my flower gardens and there they stay. Makes me smile whenever I am weeding and uncover one. Simple things are the best!

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  2. Oooohhh, this really touched my heart. My children always gave me rocks that I still have.(my youngest is now 17) I was visiting my Grandmother once a few years ago and we were going through some of her treasures, we came upon a little box lined with tissue and as she pulled it out she had a sort of funny smile on her face, it was filled with little rocks and bits of crystals she had collected over the years. She stood there just looking at me for a few silent moments and then she said (with that same funny smile), "these are my friends, I have had them with me for a long while, you should take them". I have this treasure box now that I love to visit filled with my grandmother's 'friends'.

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  3. that is so sweet! it's really touching the way kids do that... I don't have kids, but my cat used to bring me presents, he would pull a flower out of a vase and present it to me!

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  4. That is super sweet... and that photo is so cute!
    I'm sure you will have a big collection of rocks soon! ;)

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