Thursday 29 August 2013

Like a pebble on a beach...

This is my pebble.
I collected it on a beach near where my in-laws live.

The red is sandstone, it's a sedimentary rock formed in the Devonian era (not surprising then to note that the in-laws live in Devon).  As rocks go sandstone is not the hardest stone you will ever come across, while not exactly soft it is easily eroded by the action of the environment (in this case the waves and tide).

The white stuff is quartz, it's an igneous stone formed by volcanic action that used heat and pressure to push it into the sandstone.  Quartz is hard and when all the rest of this pebble has been worn away the quartz will still be there in flakes.

I feel like I can identify with the pebble,  bits of my personality were made under the intense heat and pressure of some difficult situations, they are hard, rough edges but they hold the rest of me together. Other parts of my personality are softer and are more easily worn away and like the pebble, the adult I am today was formed gradually over time.

It's taken me time to understand that these aspects are not flaws. The pebble is interesting precisely because it has these different features. 

And if I am not the only pebble on the beach?
Maybe then I can be a little bolder.