“Every Stone Has a Story”

Presenter: Dick Stetler – August 2021

 

    One of the rooms in our home that I most enjoy is our Florida Room.  It has wicker furniture and has large glass panels on three sides.  Some of the objects in the room are specimens from a much earlier time. There are cross sections of large pieces of colorful petrified wood. Beside them are stones, large agates, andone-of-a-kind rocks that display attractive lines of quartz and minerals passing through them.I try to imagine that each one has a story to tell about its experiences if it could. 

    Each was formed individually while having no control over its destiny.  Pressures from earth quakes, glaciers, being on sea bottoms, erosion, and external elements were forced on them that penetrated their outer skin disrupting their former image. Each encounter from being exposed to the forces of nature over millions of years has constantly changed the identity of their solid form.

    Recently, landscapers came into our backyard andconstructed small walls around numerous flowerbeds built with flat stones from Pennsylvania.  Noticing that numerous places of business are using palm size stones for mulch, I have recognized that others have found stones are plentiful and handsome replacements requiring no weeding.Having collected beautiful rocks through the years, I often pick them up for closer examination.  Each clearly has a story to tell about what has happened to them over millions of years.

    When the construction of Rt. 50 was continuing from Cheverly, Maryland to the bridge that spans the Chesapeake Bay, contractors struck sea bottom just outside of Bowie, Maryland uncovering fossils that were labeled Bivalve Brachiopods.It is fascinating to imagine that our home was once sea bottomwhen these creatures lived 550 million years ago.  Using a five-gallon bucket many specimens were collected.  Holding the complete remains of one of these creatures in my hand sent my mind reeling with speculation of what must have happened that caused it to die and become fossilized.

    Again, every solid form from rocks, quartz crystals to fossils has a story to tell.So does every human being.Some lessons have been learned while others await to another time and place to be discovered by each entity that incarnates on the earth.

    This morning I sent a happy birthday email to a wonderful friend who was celebrating his 92nd year.  This was the message:

Good morning Ray,

 

There is no way to put into words what your call meant to us yesterday.  It was as if no time had elapsed, no water had gone over the dam, or no river's water had flowed onward and was now out of sight.  To use an older metaphor, the needle went right back into the groove of our 33-vinyl record.  Your voices were what we needed to hear to instill the understanding that our friendship cannot be disrupted by the passage of time and the miles of our distance apart.

 

One of the things I enjoy in retirement is writing.  Rather than sermons, what is being created are messages about beliefs and the spiritual path that each person has taken. 

 

Currently, I am writing a message entitled, "Each Stone Has a Story."  This is true for every person.  Some stories may never be known, but we can see by what stands in front of us, what the sum of their experiences has created from their responses to everything. You, my friend, are an example of what a lump of coal can become due to the pressures of change to emerge as a diamond.

 

We cannot imagine everything that you have experienced, nor can we understand all the lessons you have learned from life's numerous teachers.  Lois and I are happy that we have met you and Mary.  Think of everything that had to happen to cause us to meet you two. 

 

Thank you for calling.  We hope that Mary gets her computer fixed.  😊🙏 I still admire the crystal with the praying hands forever frozen inside of it.  Lois and I love and admire you. 

Again, Happy Birthday our friend,

      

     Dick and Lois

It is well not to make any judgments as to what is happening to us or what is happening to our country.  Jesus’ world changed rapidly simply bysinging his song of truth.  In fact, he has changed many lives in our world by just three years of his ministry.  Hetaught timeless lessons which exceed in age by over two thousand years.  No storyteller has ever been so influential, radiating an influence that was magnified by dying on a cross between two thieves with forgiveness on his lips.

     There have been many sayings attributed to the Dalai Lama, many of them are apocryphal.  One, however, strikes as being influential to many readers.  He reportedly said:

This is my simple religion.  There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy.  Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

     There are many versions of The Golden Rule in all religions. This commonsense attitude of treating others the way each of us wishes to be treated, is a universal lesson that many understand but few choose to follow.  People want to receive such responses from others but find it challenging to live such responses every day.  The Dalai Lama, however, isolates the way the mind and emotions of people work to separate the sheep from the goats.  We all have a story to tell that spans hundreds of life-times living in these physical forms.

     We are all like the stones mentioned above regardless of what we believe.  We continue to be impacted and penetrated by matters over which we have no control. Like the rocks, crystals and fossils, we are always in a state of change taking us to levels of being that we never thought were possible.

     Louise Hay spiritually awakened during her 90 years of life.  She exclaimed that she had been both a man and woman on many occasions and she had participated in both sides of the moral ledger.  Just as Siddhartha and Jesus could have been different forms of the same indwelling entity, so Louise Hay became many things to many people. She claims that she was a prostitute as well as a saint. The design of the universe is not filled with Heavens& Hells, as many believe.The Universe is designed for one purpose and that is to give repeated opportunities for every angel to grow up spiritually while living in limited forms.

     No one needs to be ashamed by anything they have done or experienced in their past.  When we look at the perfect Hope Diamond, it is perfect and perfectly bland to our eyes.  We are attracted to its size.  However, the diamonds that sparkle in the sunlight are those with many flaws, some created by diamond cutters. The most creative leaders in our past were men and women who have livedcolorful lives. They are like rocks who had a story to tell.

     When we look at each agate or a diamond, they did not achieve their beauty overnight.  That is why spiritual leaders teach that each person needs to learn to let go of hurtful responses immediately and move on.We must allow others to find their own way in life by the choices they make.  Jesus taught that when we love others, we love them, warts and all.  (John 8:3f)