Rocks are always on their way to becoming something else.
By paying attention, you see not only what a rock is now, but what it is has been, where it has been, what existed around it. What ancient creature’s life is alluded to by the holes, impressions, or silicified shells left behind in rock? What glacier brought it here? Under what sea did these sands become stone? What is revealed through exposure to the elements, to chemical processes, to UV wavelengths?
After a while of looking closely, you stop thinking of rocks as inanimate. You start seeing the story of the earth within small fractures, within the size of the rock grains.
They are alive on a cosmic level of time, metamorphosing, eroding, compacting. They are carried up or dragged down by plate tectonics. Their DNA is their mineral composition and its expression within the pressure and heat of their nursery is their phenotype. Just like organics, they flower as they cool with the inclusions and crystals. Some rocks even sing when struck, as I have discovered for myself.
What a joy it is to carry a story in one’s pocket. What a joy it is to allow oneself to become fascinated by something that is absolutely everywhere.
I have found striking specimens on remote mountaintops and also in hospital parking lots. I have found rocks around me whenever I have needed them – they are all around.
As a child, I would quiet my mind by racing along Muskoka shorelines, learning which boulders were balanced, and which would move as I timed myself, leaping from rock to rock to rock. As an adult, I do the same, but with my eyes. I leap from rock to rock, discovering an area, learning what is usual and extraordinary, keeping an eye out for the stories contained within conformity or strangeness.
I am not a geologist. I have, however, devoted vast reserves of my attention to rocks and minerals. I have collected rocks from all over Canada. I have worked hard to identify what I see and to develop my own methods for bringing out the beauty in each individual stone that I bring home. Recently, I have started making jewellery and slabs, which are posted for sale on this site. If you believe I have mislabeled any of my products, please tell me, I would love to learn from you. If you would like to show me rocks from your collection, please send me a message via the contact page. Please consider supporting me in this passion as it is the only activity I engage in which makes me and the world around me feel at peace.
