The Perfect Rock

I had a dream today - during a restless nap.

A dream about a specific event, way, way back in another life. It was about, of all things, a rock! A silly rock ... and I had lost it.

This concerned me to no end in my dream since it wasn't just any rock ...

So I searched, and searched and searched ...




all in vain.




I never found it. I was more than distraught and sat on the ground weeping ...



... until I woke up with tears in my eyes.


I immediately went to my armoire, and started to clear out all of my medications to get to a small, wooden 'treasure box'.



Let's back up a bit - to put things into perspective ...


The Roman Forum, Rome, Italy - 2005:

The Perfect Rock

October 2005: The Roman Forum, Italy

I watched her, while waiting for Ryan and Gary to come back from some excursion or another. I had twisted my ankle on the tour of Palatine Hill above the Forum and had not walked to the edge to see the bird’s eye view of the area I was now sitting in. I told them to go ahead and I would rest for a bit on a piece of rubble from some ancient monument and soak in the sun.

She was very serious and committed to her work! As I watched her move about from place to place, she picked up and discarded three rocks, but the fourth one she kept and put in her pocket. I wondered what was so special about that rock and not the previous three.

I noticed her mother watching me as all mothers of handicapped children do: wondering what is in the mind of that person staring so openly and obviously at their handicapped child. Was I wondering why a woman would travel from the U.S. with her downs child and bring her to Rome, Italy? Her daughter was only looking at silly rocks, for heavens sake. She could not comprehend the wonder of what the rubble we were sitting in had once been. Who was I to judge her? In the split second these thoughts took hold, I realized that it was what I would have thought had I brought my own handicapped daughter along with me and had found someone staring so openly at her. My Jessie also would most likely have been doing something as equally confusing to an ‘outsider’. I had no idea what this mother was thinking.

I smiled at the woman and said: “I miss my daughter Jessie. She stayed home with her grandmother. Your daughter is beautiful.” And being a very perceptive lady, she knew immediately what I meant. Her daughter looked up from her searching, hearing our voices, and I asked her if she was having fun. The huge smile on her face was impossible to misinterpret. She continued on her quest, her pockets bulging with her new found treasures, and her mother relaxed, realizing that I was just enjoying the wonder and joy in her child’s treasure hunt, and nothing more.

Suddenly with a sharp intake of breath and a look of awe - she found it! The Perfect Rock. It looked like a small chunk of whatever was lying around our feet; probably from some beautiful sculpture or building, now in rubble. It was white, asymmetrical, the edges worn smooth by time. She looked at it for some time, and saw in it things that I, obviously, could not. The delight and wonder this rock could bring her was a gift to me in itself, but then she looked up, walked over to me and with the smile of an angel, placed it in my hand. As she looked at me with very serious eyes I thanked her and told her that I would take good care of it.

I keep it in a container: my ‘Treasure Box’, with some other things I have collected over the years. Most of the other items value and importance to me are very clear, but in the middle of all my beautiful, expensive trinkets, is a white chunk of rock: my priceless Perfect Rock. In it are the wonders of a small, special child, the mysteries of the universe and a little glimpse of heaven.

*****

So, you see - this wasn't just 'any' rock - and I had dreamed that I had lost it.

I grabbed my treasure box and left the room (Gary was in there and if I couldn't find it, I would probably burst out in tears and didn't want an audience) and came in the office. I gently opened the lid, and there it was! Nestled in with other treasures, in a ziploc bag with the write up I just shared. All was well!

My 'Perfect Rock' was safe!

I will sleep better tonight knowing this ...