What did you receive for Christmas this year? Something special I hope. Something memorable.

Every year my daughters ask what I’d like and I always tell them I don’t need a thing. I say, “Please, don’t waste your money on me.”

And they always tell me that’s not the right answer. So this year I told them about a few books I was interested in. Plus something else. A rock polishing machine. Nothing fancy. Just something to play with since I am a rock hound.

I’ve picked up a rock from most of the fifty states I’ve visited. They’re scattered all around the perimeter of my patio. A few are large, but most will easily fit in my hand.

The first thing I did after opening the box was read the instructions. It turns out that polishing rocks is a process that isn’t for the impatient.

The first step requires putting a few stones in a small drum with a course gritty material. Then add water and seal the drum.

Next I placed the drum on a stand and enter the number of days I wanted it to rotate, along with the speed I want it to turn. The first step requires five days of the drum rotating on level three.

Those rocks have been banging together out there in my garage for twenty- four hours now. If the television is off I can hear them.

The next step will start in four days with a less abrasive grit, fewer days and a slower speed. There will be two more steps to follow. Each with a finer grit abrasive and a slower speed.

This polishing rocks thing set me to thinking. When I was younger I ran full throttle, bouncing off walls or whatever I encountered.

As I grew older I slowed down a little. Less bouncing around. I became more methodical.

With each season of life I’ve found myself taking things a little slower, avoiding the abrasive things when possible.

Hopefully, as the seasons pass I am becoming more and more polished like those rocks in my tumbler out in the garage.

Life’s funny like that, isn’t it? We get knocked around a lot in the beginning, searching, trying to find our way in life.

Along the way we become more and more polished. Maybe we aren’t shiny on the outside like those rocks in the tumbler.

We wrinkle. We become gray or bald. We may become stooped and frail.

But on the inside…. On the inside we shine.

_______________
Rick Algood
December 30, 2021