Sometimes it’s the little things that bring me the most joy.

Today, I had to go for an appointment for new glasses.  I wear bifocals and they are EXPENSIVE so I had put it off for as long as possible.  My earpiece broke and for months Gorilla glue put it back together.  Every time I dropped my glasses or laid them on the bedside stand too hard, the earpiece would fall off again.  You know, you can only glue something together so many times before it finally refuses to stay glued.

So, off I went to the local optometrist office.  There are multiple optometrists in this office, so who you see is the luck of the draw.  It is a busy practice and whichever optometrist is available when your name is called is the one who does your examination.  Today, all the stars were aligned in my favor and I made a soul connection.

During the course of my examination, he asked me the usual questions.  I knew he was trying to determine the daily strain on my eyes.  Do you work on a computer?  Do you read a lot?  What are your hobbies?  Yes, I work on a computer.  Yes, I read all the time.  My hobbies are playing the piano and collecting rocks.

And then, everything changed!  He opened one of his desk drawers and smiled.  He said “I keep all kind of unusual stuff to give to the children who visit me.  Today, you get to be one of the kids”.  And he handed me a ROCK!!   It’s a beautiful quartz sitting on a pink matrix.  I swear, my face lit up like it was the most awesome gift I have ever received.   And it is!

We spent the next 10-15  minutes talking about gemshows.  Turns out we both attend the same ones in the Atlanta, GA area, which is about 120 miles away from us.  As my exam concluded, I thanked him again for the gift and assured him it was going home to live with other rocks where it would be well loved.

I think he found as much joy in finding a fellow rockhound as I did.  He went back to his drawer and handed me a fossil containing sea plants.  He pointed out the stalks that had fossilized inside the rock and the leaves that were imprinted on the outside.  My day went from ordinary to extraordinary.

Thanking him again, I left his exam room and went straight to the restroom for toilet paper.  I wanted to wrap the quartz so that nothing would damage the fragile crystals on its surface.  I returned to the waiting room, took a seat and waited for the cashier to call my name to check me out.

As I was waiting, he and another optometrist were heading out for lunch.  They stopped by to chat with me for a second.  I guess optometrist #2 also likes rocks because he asked me to show him the rocks he had given me.  I showed him the fossil and then reached into the side pocket of my purse to pull out the toilet paper wrapped quartz.  They both laughed that knowing, good natured laugh when I explained that I was protecting the quartz.

“This lady know what she is doing” he remarked.  And with that, he handed me a piece of raw lapis and headed out the door.

The moral of this story:   Crystals can create connections with others in the least expected and most awe inspiring ways.

PS.  I purchased some really EXPENSIVE glasses  🙂

~~ Kay Langley ~~