Mama Hen

The pictures of Mama Hen are not of some rare geological specimen, it not a collection of specific minerals with long fancy names, but she is “my favorite rock”, and one of my closest friends.

Rocks have always been dear to my heart and a part of me. As told in an earlier story, as a kid I had a favorite rock I used to set on down beside the creek. When I found my first arrowhead in the pasture across from the house I was thrilled. I have collected rocks most of my life, and still have the first fossil I ever found. Later, when I discovered the beauty that rocks, (any rock) lends to our world, I also found companionship with those who wanted to come home with me. You just know when a particular rock wants to come and live with you, I have left many rocks lay where they were. There has to be a connection between the two of you, and you usually know immediately.

I do not claim any fame to being a gemologist, or a geologist, but instead I am just a rock lover….. Rocks are a symbol to me of strength, while their beauty is just frosting on the cake.

I found Mama Hen back in the early 80’s on a trip to the mountains. We had taken a back gravel road, narrow, and steep, from Keystone over to Montezuma when we pulled off the side of the road to just get out and wander the hills. I had climbed about half way up the side of the mountain when I seen the glistening tip of her head and back. Half buried in the dirt, I squatted down beside her to touch her beautiful coat. Scraping away the soil beneath her and finding her unattached to any other formation, I gently lifted her out…(all 95 pounds of her)… and right away she ask to go home with me. She was too heavy for me to pick up and maneuver down the mountainside while climbing down myself, so I turned her on her side and rolled her most of the way down the mountain, then Jim helped me lift her in the back of the jeep.

Those of you who are not “rock lovers” probably will not understand the relationship that is shared between humans and rocks. Rocks do talk, and rocks do listen. Years before “worry stones” were popular, I carried pebbles in my pockets. Crystals and plain old solid rocks hold many healing energies.

Walking with my head down when I’m out and about is just the way it is. Walking up to someone’s front door, down a driveway, out in nature, on the beaches, and in many parts of the world, my eyes are always looking for that special rock I may need or that needs me. I have rocks I’ve collected from every state and country we have traveled to.

Mama Hen was so named because of her unique shape. Viewing her from the perfect angle, she looks just like one of the big old laying hens that used to set in my grandparents chicken coop on the laying beds. She is there ready to visit any time I walk past her.

For many years now she had been the guardian of the back gate, placed thusly to be just enough of a detriment to any unwelcome visitor who does not know she’s there and who may try to enter. Each time I go outside she is there to greet me, never changing, and always ready for whatever subject I may want to discuss. Not only does she have the job as gatekeeper, she is a beautiful decoration to our yard, and always garners comments from folks who are invited in with a warning to step over or around her. She is a conglomerate of many minerals, crystals and solid quartz, mica, and always sends a sparkle out to attract attention even on the darkest of days.

Following my heart attack, I started my journey back with short walks around the house… Every time I went outside, there set Mama Hen. I had probably made three rounds when one afternoon I walked over to her and just set down on the ground beside her. She commented that she wondered when I was going to stop and talk, that she had been worried about me. In turn, I rubbed my hand against her rough, beautiful body and ask how she was doing, and how she stayed so solid thru everything she goes through. Sometimes I have seen her nearly covered in leaves as they’ve blown around her from the fall trees shedding. She has been buried in snow many times, she withstands the heat from the beating sun in the summer and the onslaught of bugs and water sprinklers in the Springtime, never losing or moving from her special position in our lives.

Her answer to me was that she came to be the way she is from the formation of millions of tiny particles coming together over millions of years of time. She reminded me that strength cannot and should not be hurried. I needed to hear that, it was a calm reassuring reminder that soothed my worries and led the way to my accepting the journey of getting well, not just being well.

Along the way, I will introduce you to some of my other rocks. Some I’ve bought at rock shops, most I’ve found, and many that I love. I literally have tons of rocks in our yard…. And through the years every time we have moved and changed locations, my rocks have came with us. I also have many rocks inside my house, I have bowls full setting on the coffee and side tables to run your hands through when you walk by or are just setting here. I have decorative rocks setting on the floor in almost every room of the house, rocks on the fireplace mantle, and many of them setting around on various pieces of furniture. Each one has a story to tell and each one is there if you want to share your story with them.

Everyone needs a Mama Hen, but if you don’t have your own you’re more than welcome to log in, look at her or some of the others whose pictures I’ll be posting in the future, and say hello to at any time. They love to listen and if the connection is right, they will talk back.