Rock Wall Almost Complete

October 7:

Today, Richard is likely to finish the installation of the Rock Wall. He is really moving. As my Father would say, he is "picking them up and laying them down." I never knew what that meant in Stone Mason Lingo, but I know now.

Richard, Melanie, and I have lined up the remaining special Rocks that will be in the Wall. We have put some calls out to Special People who live at Special Places (Hollis and Deleta, Dwight and Judy Hart, Ethan and Sarah Hughes). Hollis Dale was here; he may have something special for us too. We are running to gather Rocks from special places in the next couple of Hours. Maybe a slower meditative pace is a better idea.

What you see above is just a small sampling of the greater Wall:

• Geode (from my Father's Lifelong Collection---he was always looking for and finding Geodes)
• Shell (which my Father would have collected sometime in Mom and Dad's 27 years of walking the Beaches near their South Texas Winter Home)
• Rock cut to show an almost Flower-like Pattern (from former neighbors Bob and Connie Scott---Bob's Father, who had passed near the time of my Father's passing, had quite a collection which he cut, polished, and loved; Bob gave us 1 of these precious stones from his Dad's collection)
• White slab from St. Patrick's Church construction in St. Patrick, MO (in the mid 1950s Dad was a Stone Mason on this project which was a replica of the Church of St. Patrick in Donegal, Ireland; this Church was a defining work in my Father's career)
• Rock with round hole (from Betty and Bradley Chrisman in the Novinger area; Betty is Richard's cousin; Novinger holds roots for our Families, including the Croatian immigrants who worked the Coal Mines there in the early 1900s)
• 2 slabs under long white stone (from the Chariton River at Yarrow, where Richard's Dad spent some of his early childhood; his Grandfather was a Blacksmith at the Yarrow Mill; my Dad and my Grandpa Fred Albert Brenz fished)
• Red stone (from my Nephew and Melanie's Cousin Bransen and his wife Leigh at the site of their new home in Oklahoma City).

I think we could write a book about almost every one of the Rocks and the Stories that they hold. This is shaping up to be no ordinary Wall. You could call it a Story Wall. It is chocked full of Meaning, Story, Healing, Prayer, Love, Hope. Now those are things to build into the Foundation of our Home.