I Lick Rocks

 

 

There is something almost holy about digging into Mother Earth, about chipping away at a rock cliff, at staring down into the river seeking gem-grade rocks.  There is something almost innate in knowing what brown crusted gray rock holds a gem inside.  

 

The Vernon Lapidary Club, which I belong too, owns their own claims and have claim-owners who take us to their claims to seek out the gems known for that area.  This weekend, we are going out to find garnets.  No matter how hard a climb, how long I have to walk, how hard the terrain to drag my little “paperboy” cart, I am game to give it a try at least once.  I can say I have gone where no almost-seventy-six-year-old woman ought to be going.  

 

I gather my stones sand gems, go to the club shop and cut, grind, and polish my own gems to coax out the most beauty I can out of my finds. I, then, bring them home and make cabochons, wrap them in wire, or set them in clasps and make beautiful jewelry out of them.  

 

 When we search for crystals in tall piles of the gravel pit, one has to train our eyes to find the molten-glass looking agates.  When we are taken to claims with seams of a certain type of crystals, we have to follow the hidden line of the seam and dig until we find it so we can hack, or pry, shovel or pick the gems out.  One of my favorite places to find gems is to go to the “Potato Field”.  Potato-looking stones lie just below the moss-covered ground.  All one has to do is lift a section of moss carpet and they lay there, right for the picking.  Hours go by without notice.  

 

The loamy smell around us when we claw, scrape, pry and chisel out our finds, is mesmerizing.  W seek the kind of bedrock that certain gems are found.  We are like detectives looking for clues as where to work.  We know what area has what stones in it, (It is said that every inch of British Columbia soil has gems in it.) but we have to have a sense of knowing exactly what we are looking for.  We need to know how gems can disguise themselves.  Most times, we find small, broken fragments of gems with their potato skin covering broken enough that the gem pokes through.  Our hands sink into the soil, our chisels are struck and a chip comes off of the cliff all, and suddenly, there it is.  Millions of years ago these gems were made beautiful and unique and our own hands have uncovered them.  Thes tory of the formation of earth lies in front of us.  It takes one’s breath away.  Sometimes it feels so holy.  When it happens, I am aware of having wakened something in the heart of Mother Earth.  

 

I am a rockhound.  I have been a rockhound since I could walk and pick up a stone.  As a child, I had stones that stood for something, for instance, I had a stone to hold when I was sad, another stone for another feeling and another symbolic meaning.  Where that came from, I do not know, but I believed.  My mother often fussed over me because there were rocks tumbling in the washer or dryer.  She was not a born rockhound.  But, my daughter and several of my grandchildren are.  It touches my heart when they share their findings and keepers with me.  I tell them rock stories.  I encourage their relationship with Mother Earth.

 

I wish you the ability to go to waters’ edges and seek the beauty that others have missed.  I wish you a ‘touchstone’.   I wish you to find a stone that causes you to lick it so you can clearly see the color.   I wish you the peace and calm and scariness of seeking beauty to make more beauty.

 

©Carol Desjarlais 6.13.23

 

Akrasia versus Enkrateia

 

 

I was going to have weekly art journaling classes for the summer, but I am stalling, procrastinating, something… and I have not advertised it.  I could say it is because I am so busy and have so much going on.  I could say, I am going on a cruise for ta week the first part of July and I should wait until I get back.  I could say a lot of things, but I have a sense that I am not going to do it.  I lack confidence that it will go.

I could start having a booth at the market every Saturday and then I remember how much work it is to do it an I talk myself out of it.  Procrastination’s pique.We all know procrastination well.  It has been with human beings from the beginning, not something new.  What is new to me is an ancient Greek word to define procrastination:  Akrasia.

Akrasia is the lack of self-control that allows us to delay and not follow through on plans.   We lack commitment and become the victim of our own actions.  Perhaps I like the feeling of guilt and frustration that sets in when we realize e are not following through, of starting a project or action that we should, would, could make.  Sometimes I simply cannot start working towards getting things done. 

One of the things to beat procrastination is to write a schedule and heck list and simply begin.  It is the beginning towards the end project will help us be more committed.  I sit with a day planner ain front of me, every day.  I look down for events I need to keep track of.  Perhaps writing a few points to begin and complete a project will help.  Somehow, I need to organize this.

I think that I procrastinate I because I have blocks of time taken up with other events until mid-July.  I have a great deal of company until we leave on our cruise.  Following through to make sure that I am getting all the pre-cruise things done seems to have taken up anything I should be doing in the meantime. Now to even start scheduling. 

I have already done the write-up and planning for art journaling classes.  I have made the sample art journal.  All I need to do is set a date to start and advertise.  It is, but a few simple steps left to do. I felt  my mind jump to advertising “tomorrow”… it has started already.  I must do it today.  Maybe I need to set an exact time I am going to advertise.  See, it can happen at the beginning of the simplest steps. 

Akrasia happens when we rebel against beginning until wee fall victim to procrastination’s downfall.  Enkrateia happens when we gain control of ourselves and use good habits in fining ways to follow through on intentions. 

***Ok, at 10 am, I am going to advertise the art journaling class for women. No ifs, ands, or buts.  I shall not be akrasiac because I want enkrateia. There, it is scheduled in my day planner.  I am going to set an alarm on my phone.  Simple steps. 

©Carol DesJarlais 12.6.23

 

June Is Bursting All Over

 

 

June promises beauty, warmth, love and passion as Mother Earth turns her face to the heat of summer.  We have forgotten how to celebrate the growth of our food and abundant flowers.  The hills of home were alive with beauty…startling and stunning to rise up over a hill and turn back to see such brilliance. 

June, the month of Venus, Aphrodite, and white plumes of veils and wedding dresses looking like great blossoms of white amidst the festooned bouquets.  It is the month of an ancient European drink called “honeymoon” …yes, honeymoon.  A mead made of honey that is fermented and was given to the bride and groom as an aphrodisiac.  Ah, all kinds of love is in the air.

 

The theme of the month is “abundance”. And strawberries and other red fruits abound.   The Moon this month is the Strawberry Moon.  All is not rosy, though, and this month can be the month of frustration.  It can be the month of tough lessons and rough tests of your character.  If this happens, question what it is in you that needs changing in order for you to resolve the problem(s)?  

 

I have been ‘Home’ for a week and a half, for medical reasons, but, oh, what peace and relief I feel when I am but a block away from where I was raised.   Being greeted with the Buffalo beans, the shooting stars, the wild rose blossoms was breathtakingly evocative.  I soaked in that sense of comfort and calm.  

 

I am still dealing with pain and today is day three so I ought to go.  I have warned everyone around me that I have pain-grumpiness and that I will not be able too ‘suffer fools’…or foolishness... just now.  I am crabby as heck and able to withheld it, but best to wear a sign but says not to press the button.

 

Let the feasting begin!  Let the gratitude reign.    Let the frustrations float off and around you so you might be the right kind of love and gratitude.

 

©Carol Desjarlais 6.10.23