When is a Rock like an Egg?

        What a raccoon and a storm inspire me to share

Big winds and rains were coming up on us.  I ran outside, quickly dumped into the aloe plant some rocks that the raccoon had taken out of the planter earlier, and brought the aloe inside.  I placed the planter on the floor near the front door and went back to my previous activity.

The next morning I glanced down at the long green aloe leaves cascading out of the planter and noticed the round red rock had landed in the very middle. It looked like an egg in a nest of aloe leaves.  I smiled as I wondered if the raccoon kept taking that rock out of the planter because it looks like an egg.  For days I had been moving the round red rock back into the planter after the raccoon had removed it the night before.

Of course, every time I see that rock I think of what it means to me. A man had given it to my brother and me. We were staying in Khajuraho of Madhya Pradesh, India. We had jumped at the opportunity to go on a jeep ride to a Park that was an hour or so away. There was a possibility of riding elephants. But because we got there so late in the day, evidently the time of hungry tigers, the elephant rides were not available.  We asked "just call me Raj", the man driving the jeep, if he could take us for a ride through the countryside. He took us on roads he had never taken tourists.  We drove quite a ways through little villages and rough roads to enter into what Raj called "Big Panna".

After tooling around the park, enjoying the jeep ride from the backseat, we came to a scenic lookout where a sole man was hanging out. He and Raj exchanged foreign words. Raj asked us if it would be okay if we gave the stranger a ride. "Sure!" we said. There was one more stop we wanted to make, so while Raj, my brother and I hiked up to the lookout, the stranger hung back near the jeep.

By the time we got to the scenic lookout my brother and I had gotten goofy-sibling like, and Raj joined us in seeing how far we could throw rocks (the picture shows some ripples in the water). When we returned to the jeep the stranger handed us some perfectly smooth rounded red rocks that he had found while waiting for us. He thanked us for giving him a ride.

After my brother and I returned from India, I put the round red rock in my aloe. It's one of the things I do with rocks I gather.

That rock always reminded me of the round rock my mom gave me a long time ago.  She spoke of our Native American ancestors and the Bad River in Wisconsin where the rock was formed.  Now, three and a half years after the India trip, I see that the round red rock looks like an egg.  It reminds me of my mother's Easter birthday card to me where she explained that an egg represents an idea that will come to fruition.

Many ideas have become clear over these years. The round red rock now reminds me of those ideas and inspirations that I discovered along the way.  I treasure them and behold them in the aloe of my heart, nurturing and witnessing them come to fruition.