Yesterday while walking I found a pebble. Nothing new there. I do find lots of pebbles in lots of places. And I often collect many of them. What seemed really strange about this pebble was its shape and its absolute absence of any particular color. Every time that I looked at it, it seemed as if its color has changed. And its shape had become even more indescribable.
I came home and kept it in the silver box where I keep all the other pebbles. And although I don’t do this usually, this morning as I got up and went and opened the box. Strangely, it seemed that the total number of pebbles from the box had come down. Even though the pebble I had brought home yesterday was still there, some of the other pebbles, it seemed, were missing. I couldn’t identify these missing pebbles.
But of course, it weren’t the pebbles that had went missing. It was just that yesterday’s pebble had done something to my psyche. It was somehow creating the illusions that my subconscious expected.
It? definitely not.
The pebbles couldn’t have been creating the illusion. It was my mind that created the illusion by means of this pebble.
But then again, why this pebble? Why not all the other multitude of pebbles that I had been collecting all this while? Was this pebble any different?
No.
Then, why would my mind try to impose difference to this one? And even if it does, it’s no way necessary that I submit. Therefore, I took a deep breath and calmed my mind. I made a resolution of not letting my mind take control over me.
“I’m the master”, I said, three times.
Tonight as I had been returning home, I stumbled onto another pebble. It reminded me of a pebble that, perhaps, I had not found in the box this morning. In any case, since it won’t do me no harm, I brought it home and kept it in the box. I found I couldn’t close the box properly.
Perhaps, there were too many pebbles in it.
what a lovely little tale….. I don’t think you can ever have too many pebbles…
Thanks Isabelle. I’m planning to buy a new silver box.
Smile.
I enjoyed this – it’s a distant cousin to Jorge Luis Borges story about the pebbles that couldn’t be counted and that kept multiplying and reducing.
I just discovered that you linked to me, and I can’t remember if we already met – if we had, I’m sure I would have linked first.
Thanks for the comment! Now I get it. Everything seemed familiar somehow. But I didn’t connect Clown with Pseudoclown! Silly me!
I like opals because they have what your pebble had: mutability and what seems like an absence of color at first. You can tilt opals, though, and see a swirl of iridescent colors.
Indeterminacy: Thanks for both unrecognizing and recognizing me. It’s a lovely process. This blog might have lots to do with Borges. So, every now and then, many of you’ll find connection to his pen.
The other Ivy You’re very correct about the opals. Maybe I should just start collecting some of them in the near future. I hope I’ll find some of them on the streets while I walk the next day.
Regarding finding opals on your walk:
Pebbles are nice, too.