I decided to begin this blog to honor the world of rocks and stone.  Stones are everywhere.  Just today I was hiking through the tropical rain forest in Jianfengling on Hainan Island.  The path ended at a massive boulder.  A red arrow pointed down.  I followed it and crawled through a small cave to the other side.  Probably a mother’s womb is the closest thing to being under the earth.  And who can remember that?  The cave was oddly warm.  The air, still.  The birdsong that had filled the air was muffled.  All around were the rough gray walls of the cave.  

I’ve always liked stones—from resplendent gemstones to humble granite.   I like things made of stone.  Old churches.  Rodin’s sculptures.  The Great Wall.  A ruby ring. 

Stone comes from dark places. Rocks last in an impermanent world.  There is poetry in rocks.  It’s easy to see the metaphor.  Things that come from deep underground, that you have to dig for. They have to be burned and cut to become brilliant.  Altered to become functional.   

I’ve worked with rocks and I’ve traveled in search of gemstones.  I’m not a geologist or a gemologist but I search these people out because of their knowledge and expertise, because of their love of rocks.  I hope through this blog to get to know some of them better.