Worry Stones

I'm having trouble falling back asleep after having been up with the baby. As I look at the patterns of shadows cast across the blinds while trying to fall back to sleep I've been thinking of random things.

One idea flowed into another in that unique way that happens in the wee overnight hours. A burnt card leads into a fond memory of worry stones.

I grew up in a small town, our little block surrounded by fields and woods. Down a path a ways there used to be a fairly large pile of shale rocks. I was young at the time so it may have seemed larger. It had enough to it for us to climb on.

My family used to take walks to shale mount. My brother and I would climb up on it, reaching the peak fairly easily. We would sit on the dark warm rock and overlook the surrounding field, and the woods a little farther away.

And some times we would do worry stones. See the thing about shale is that it is brittle. It cracks apart easily and has sharp edges. We would use one piece of shale to write on another creating a worry stone. We would put down a few words about something that was bothering us then toss the worry stone over the side of shale mount. It would then break symbolic of letting go of the problem / worry.

Sometimes in life you do your best but things are still rough. You Do what you can, ask for help as possible, and take a deep breath while letting go of what can't be.  The stones were a nice tactile and focal point for this.

3 am wisdom and bits of a childhood memory. I'm not 100 % sure where shale mount actually was. The clearest part is the worry stones.