Rock of Ages

I am one of those rare people who actually hates surprises; it drives me crazy waiting for stuff, such as when holidays or my birthday approaches. Whenever I ask my husband what he got me he responds with the same thing every time: A pet rock.

This is ironic because in all actuality, I really do have a pet rock. I don't really think of my rock as a 'pet' exactly, but for all practical purposes it can in fact, be seen as such. When I was taking an online course in Druidry, one of the assignments was to go out in nature and find a rock that would be used for a specific meditation exercise. It was to be of substantial weight in that, the rock should be heavy enough where I would be able to "feel" that it was there during meditation, but not so heavy as to be painful. The idea was that the rock was to be a kind of guide and grounding for the subconscious mind, and by placing the rock in a comfortable place on the abdominal region of the body, it could be felt at all times and so, allow ourselves to go deeper into the total black of the mind without fear of losing our way, because the weight of the rock would be there to call us back.

I really loved this meditation exercise, and practiced it on a regular basis for about a year. I stopped temporarily because we moved and during the moving process, my rock was packed up and stored, and although I thought of my rock periodically, life got busy and I never quite got around to unpacking it. Over the past year I have been dealing with a very stressful situation and a couple of months ago I suddenly remembered my rock, and I realized how much I missed both my guide and my inner consciousness of the exercise, so I unpacked it and began the meditation ritual once again.

Ever since I re-started this practice, I have realized just how much more relaxed I am and how much better life is; it really does just make everything easier. This really goes beyond the ritual, though. What I have realized is that, not only do I enjoy meditating, but just walking by my rock or touching it briefly also produces this almost euphoric relief that travels through me and invigorates my senses, and I can actually feel the "energy" of the rock when it passes into my field of vision. I think this is, essentially, the spirit of the rock communicating with me, and I think this is why having it around and visible just makes my life experience so much better. It also makes me think how much better my months of stress would have been, had I thought to allow my rock guide to re-enter my life when I needed it the most, but I suppose life is about growing and learning. There is no going back, only moving forward..