cartoon cow writing at a desk

Set Me Free (3.19.18)

I dictated these notes back in February and just discovered them. Time to write!

February 10, 2018

Today I walked in the pouring rain.  I brought a rock with me that I purchased at the Aquarian Bookstore located in Carytown in downtown Richmond back in the mid-1980s. This rock was round and small and I don’t know what it was called. I liked it. I was attracted to it. The stone was a goldish color, the exterior was polished smooth, and you could see straight lines criss-crossing throughout the rock. I used to wear it with me to work when I worked with children in an after-school program for Henrico County Recreation and Parks. One day I lost the stone on the playground. A little boy walked up to me and said, “Look, Miss Young! Look what I found!”

I worked with approximately 100 children in the after-school program. I looked at the item in the little boy’s hand and it was my rock. I was playing with the kids and hanging upside down on the monkey bars at one point and apparently it fell out of my pocket. I told the boy, “That’s my rock!” and I explained to him that I had lost the stone and he gave it back to me. I don’t remember the boy’s name, but I’m very grateful that something somewhere inspired this young boy to show me this rock and then give it back to me. I was happy to have the treasure back in my possession.

I meditate with various rocks and crystals as guided. This past week I was guided to bring this round rock along with two new rocks given to me by a young man named Elder to meditate in the woods. (Side note: I was on a writing retreat this past winter and a young man named Elder who worked at the hotel gifted me two of his rocks. One rock is Moldavite from Russia created from a meteor from outer space that landed half on land and half in the ocean and the other one is Spirit Cactus/Quartz from Africa.)

It was pouring rain today. According to my weather app it was 42°, however the rain was making all of the coldness in the air extremely penetrating, therefore it felt much, much colder. As I was meditating with all three rocks, I looked down at the treasures in my hand and thought, “Wow. This round rock and I have been through a lot together.” Then I heard a message, “I just want to be free.” It was as if the rock that I’ve been associated with since the mid-1980s was speaking to me. I didn’t want to let the rock go, because I was attached to it. That’s part of the problem on planet earth – we get attached to things instead of allowing things to come in and out of our life as needed similar to the waves of the ocean ebbing and flowing on the beach. I looked at my rock, I thanked it for what it has done for me, and I set it free. I tossed it into the woods with sadness and regret, yet also sensing that it needed to be set free. Then I cried standing underneath my umbrella as the rain poured down all around me in the woods that I love so much.

A- women.