Me and rocks

        If you have spent anytime reading this blog, you know that I have a keen interest in rocks. I have a basket of them in the entrance way of my home that I have collected from all over the world.  I really appreciate the beauty of a rock.  There is just something about a certain rock, in a certain place, that calls to me to pick it up and bring it home.  Now the obvious problems are that I can like a lot of rocks, and rocks are naturally heavy. They are rocks.  So I have had to learn, painfully and expensively, that you cannot bring all the rocks you find home with you. There is a weight limit on the checked bag.  While it was a difficult quandry in the Holy Land, a country entirely made up of rocks, it is even more a complexity here on Iona.  The island is made up of so many different kinds of rocks.  Literally, there are red ones, green ones, white marbly ones, and some sandwiched together with two different kinds.  Last time I was here I managed to limit myself to one rock from each major beach that I visited.  Will I succeed at this level of self control again?  Or is there an alternative plan?

      Correct answer. Alternative plan.  I have taken to the various beaches recovering bits of sea glass and pottery shards.  These are lighter than rocks and I am planning on using them to make a cross for my wall at home.  The problem is, as you might guess, I have become a bit obessed with locating and collecting these items.  I carry a plastic bag with me to put them in, and then I wash them when I return to my room.  (I did forget my bag the other day and simply put them in my trouser pocket.  Not the best plan.  Way too much weight on one side.  One of my roommates actually started all this by gathering them for her friend, who will make jewerly with them.

      Because of there light weight, these peices tend to get carried in with the tide, and deposited and left in interesting places.  This requires my climbing onto rocks and exploring little crevices between the rock.  I actually found a pottery shard that was wedged so tightly in the rock that I could not remove it.  I did photograph it.  But climbing over the rocks has brought me to some interesting places.  Yesterday I found a red granite boulder about the size of a basketball, wedged between two black granite columns about 2 feet off the ground.  There was no moving this rock.  God put it there and there it was to stay.  I also found this semicircle carved into the black rock by the tides, and deposited into the area were many rocks roughly 4 - 5 inches in diameter.  When you climbed into the circle and sat on the small rocks, you were sheilded from the wind, but could still hear the waves.  I imagine this is where God sits.

this was a thin place.