The Comfort of Rocks and the Ocean

My family and I went out to Salem, Massachusetts last month, and to be honest, I just wanted to be at the ocean side.

So that is what we did (and everything else was overpriced anyway).

While at the ocean my children and I looked specifically for quartz, of which I found many, but we also found this fascinating rock, which I cannot seem to get enough off. The light and dark of it is fascinating to me.

Life is so hard, and as the Buddhists will say, we cause most of our suffering from clinging to our attachments and our own suffering. We don't surrender through the suffering, we hold it close to us like a tattered blanket and let it define us. As someone who has suffered from chronic depression since she was 8 years old, I can honestly say that rocks are comforting.

Life is about change, and you would think that rocks, to me, would be about how they are something that doesn't change. But they do change! They wear down, you can smash them, you can grind them up. Nature will do all of these things naturally. The stone above is smooth, but from water. It didn't come off it's original place of rest smooth like this! Rather, the ocean tumbled it along, easing the sharp edges and wearing it down until it came to rest on a little beach in Salem, Massachusetts that was covered in stones and pebbles.

Why does it give me comfort?

Because of the idea of rolling rocks. Of our souls being a rock that is tumbled through life, yet we still keep the colors we had at the beginning of our life. Our shape changes, and perhaps we lose some of ourselves, but we gain a new understanding of where we are strong inside and where we are weak.

Life is like the ocean, rising and falling with waves and currents. Sometimes at ease and gentle, sometimes with storms that rise out of almost nowhere. Sometimes we see the storms coming and we just cannot swim fast enough to get out of the way. Sometimes we are able to dive down below the waves and hold on fast until it passes. 

Rocks, trees, the earth itself and the ocean. These are things we can touch and feel. The rocks and trees are decades to thousands of years old (if not older depending on the object). This is an amazing thing to realize and meditate on. 

Think about the problems that you had last year, or even ten years ago. Have they resolved? I bet many of them have. Some of them are even funny now.

Our spirits are old, as old as the stars. Our bodies share star dust. This life is fleeting and rocks, the earth, the ocean and trees tell us to slow down, feel the rhythm of the earth. Feel the waves and listen to them crash on the beach over and over again. Watch the trees sway in the breeze and sway with them. Live in the moment, because the past is gone and future is not in our control. Live in the moment. Feel that moment, let the past go and the future go and surrender to that moment. What you feel isn't depression or anxiety when you do, but peace. Not happiness or joy, but a sense of being and belonging. 

It's really quite amazing.

So mote it be.