Some of my extended family is pretty eccentric. The particularly odd ones are VERY odd. It took me years to appreciate their uniqueness.
When I was fourteen my parents went on their first vacation without us kids and out of the country. They packed their bags and headed to Mexico for what felt like an eternity. In all actuality it was probably 10 days but I’m not kidding it felt like years had passed. They had called upon an extended family member to house-sit and watch us while they were away. I’m not sure if he was the only one available at the time or their first choice, but my parents selected the MOST eccentric member of our family. He’s one of those uncles that’s really nice, but laced with a little bit of crazy and a whole lot of weird. When you’re a teenager this concoction isn’t ideal.
My uncle has tried acid, and you can tell. He has tried other drugs and you can tell. He walks with a very distinct bounce in his steps and you can see his so-blonde-it’s-white hair coming from a mile away. But the tipping part of the scale is I haven’t EVER seen him without rocks on him. Not little pebbles either, GIANT stones or agates. My Uncle is a collector of rocks particularly agates, but he has other stones as well. If you let him he’ll tell you the story behind each one. I particularly remember the dinosaur egg he found in a dried up lake once. Mmmmhmmm.
He’s always working on his collection. “Working on his collection” means trespassing into rock pits and looking for them and that’s exactly what we did for the YEAR my parents were gone in Mexico. Every .Single. Day. ALL. Day. Long. Not exactly the ultimate way for a teenage girl to spend her spring break.
One would think that the days it rained or snowed we’d cozy up by the fire and watch movies but NOOOO…apparently those are the PRIME picking days. Being fourteen you might wonder why I didn’t just stay at home while my brother and uncle went out, well that’s because I wasn’t allowed. He would tell me that he was asked to watch me and couldn’t exactly watch me if I wasn’t with him. Because communication wasn’t as accessible as it is now, my parents didn’t call once to check in. I was stuck. In the car at sun up headed to a rock pit and there until dinner time. It sucked.
After my parents FINALLY returned I told them that I wouldn’t EVER have a spring break like that again. They told my crazy uncle, that he could have left me at home…well that memo came about a YEAR to late.
Since then, many moons have passed. When another uncle died and we were selecting an item or two to remember him by, ironically I selected a rock. There isn’t anything special or unique about this rock and I’m sure it doesn’t have any significance to my uncle that had passed, or the crazy rock picker but this rock had been part of a fire-pit where I had spent many night hearing and sharing stories and that was enough for me to select it.
A couple years ago I was sitting in church listening to a sermon when the subject of rocks came up. The Pastor said something that has stuck with me since that day. He said, “Man, if this rock could talk.” I thought he was turning crazy but then he continued by saying, “think about it. All of the rocks that are on this planet have been here since the beginning of time. The same rocks Jesus saw we can see too…man, if this rock could talk and imagine what it would have to say.” Since that sermon I have looked at all rocks differently. Rocks have more of a powerful meaning to me (crystals included).
I was recently gifted agates by my Mother-In-Law. These agates were found on her property and left in old coffee cans. Their beauty has been masked by rust. I took the time to scrub each of these and it took a LONG time. Some of them were large, mostly medium to small size. Once I got the rust off I couldn’t believe the beauty that was underneath. It made me think of humans. We are so critical and judgmental of others and we have no idea what’s below their surface. They could be the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen if you would just take the time to really look at them. Maybe it’s their words that are the “rust” in this situation because it’s not always physical appearances that make beauty masked, sometimes it’s words or actions, but we’re all beautiful. We may have some rust, dents, scratches, holes, defects but if you just look at things with a tilt of the head an entirely new view might come into place and that makes all the difference.
Much Love,
Jes xoxo