Somehow, I never imagined myself as a rock collector–Annie Oakley, an astronaut, a guest at the White House, or Little Joe Cartwright’s wife, yes. But a rock collector? No.
🙂
(The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Mom!) A mail day doesn’t pass these days, it seems, without a package from some eBay seller in a far-off country. So far, I’ve gotten great stuff, at pretty reasonable prices. (In some cases, the shipping costs more than the item.)
OK, so Mom’s rocks are, well, rocks, while most of mine are some kind of mineral or gemstone–carnelian, citrine, lapis luzuli, picture Jasper, labradorite, and my personal favorite, flourite. Call me crazy (it isn’t as if I haven’t already admitted as much in the title of this blog), but when I hold certain stones, I can feel their vibration. Flourite, which I think of as a spiritual super-conductor, is practically electric for me. (Now, all these stones and thousands of others have alleged properties of some sort–healing, good luck, protection, etc.–but if you happen to intuit your own meaning for certain gemstones, that’s a GOOD thing. Run with it!) I put together a strand–I think of them as my prayer/meditation beads–consisting of: tiger eye, red carnelian, lapis, flourite, and Jasper. The thing practically sings to me, and I’m either wearing it or carrying it most of the time.
I swear, these stones soothe me in a profound way. Placebo effect? Maybe–but does it really matter?
I’m planning similar bead combinations for certain friends and family members, in fact. And, OH, the possibilities–wonderful tiger eye and Jasper for the earthy types (and also good for flighty folks like me), blue and white jade if only because they’re pretty, lapis for mental clarity, among other benefits, sodalite for ease of communication–well, you get the idea.
I spent a restful weekend; did some writing, made a few artist trading cards, ran the dishwasher, things like that. I listened to most of another Mary Roberts Rinehart book, “The Album”–I’m fascinated by these old-fashioned mysteries at the moment–and whipped up a batch of Zero Point soup. It’s tasty indeed–chock-full of good, healthy veggies. (Thanks to Weight Watchers, I’m back in my jeans.)
I’m off to Seattle on Wednesday to meet up with Debbie Macomber for some fun and some shopping–OK, a LOT of shopping–when it comes to retail therapy, Debbie and I are the dynamic duo. 🙂 We’ll be attending the traditional Christmas party, with all our Seattle-area writer friends. We’re also doing a mother/daughter thing with our three girls–more on that later. If my new and smaller laptop arrives in time, I’ll be blogging (and writing a little) a few times as well. Although plans are subject to change, we hope to hit both a major outlet mall and a casino on this expedition–I don’t have the knack for finding bargains at the outlet stores, but I’m lucky on slot machines. 🙂
OK, let’s wrap this up for today–I have writing to do. 🙂
Thanks for all your wonderful reading suggestions–Mom mentioned Frank G. Slaughter. I do remember him, and Lloyd C. Douglas, too–my favorite was “Dr. Hudson’s Secret Journal”. I loved books like “The Robe”, by Thomas B. Chastain, and I’m a big fan of James Michener’s “Centennial” and other gigantic historical sagas–I really miss those big, thick books…
Ciao for now, my friends.
About Linda
The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West.
Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a horse property outside Spokane.
