My friend Sharon and I took a 36 hour trip to South Austin on Sunday and Monday to visit my dear friend Sally whom I haven’t seen in more than a year and a half. We spent the afternoon in Gruene, which is one of my favorite places in Texas, and I decided to make a detour to Canyon Lake before heading back to Sally’s house for the night because Sharon had never been there. We hiked down to the water and sat for probably close to an hour just digging through rocks and shells and listening to the water as it washed upon the shore.
Most of the rocks were pretty rough with sharp corners and uneven feel. But I came across this one, shaped a bit like a heart, and incredibly smooth to the touch. I commented to Sally how smooth it was and how when I saw rocks like that, I always wondered at all the places that they had been that had brought them to this condition.
It made me think of how symbolic that rock is to our own lives. We all start out pretty rough, with sharp corners and an uneven feel. If we stay far enough back from the waves that carry us and take us to places different than where we started, our edges remain sharp and our exterior rough and uneven. But if we get close enough to the water to get tossed about, we get thrown into situations where we bang up against other rocks that are hard, uneven, and unyielding. Along the way we get a bit beat up. A bit tossed about. A bit scuffed and worn. But we also get our sharp corners softened. Our exterior worn smoother and more even. We become more pleasant to the eye and appealing to the hold, even with our appearances a bit more scarred perhaps than when we started.
Certainly the process of wearing off those sharp corners isn’t an easy or a comfortable one. And yet what’s left on the other side is something far more pleasing than what we started as. And just might cause someone else to wonder at all the places we have been to give us the appearance that we have.
