Little round treasure

I just got a special glass bowl for my rocks. So now they look pretty. Even the black ones.

Actually the black ones always looked pretty to me. That's why they're in my room and not on the beach.

I know you're supposed to collect shells on beaches, but sometimes rocks are pretty too. I have green rocks and maroonish-purple rocks and white with black speck rocks from the Puget Sound beaches in Washington. I have littler rocks about the same colors from the Mediterranean Sea. They did have bigger rocks there, but I had to carry them home in a suitcase on an airplane instead of in a pile in the back of my car, so I only collected the little pretty rocks from the Mediterranean Sea.

I collected the black rocks the day I was at a beach in Oregon with a heavy load on my mind. I was very sad. I felt like I'd been pounded with wave after wave of hard things.

And then I saw the rocks. I knew they weren't always so round and smooth. They got round and smooth from being pounded with wave after wave of hard things. So me and the rocks shared something. And it occurred to me that one day I might be round and smooth if I survived the pounding. I collected a few of them. And they're beautiful to me.

Come see them in their little glass bowl sometime, and you'll see what I mean.