A True Labor Of Love

Love messages on stones.

Pile from a distance.

My husband and like to hike with our dog, Buddy, in the mountain preserve which is a block from our house. Yesterday we came upon something that touched us both deeply.

Some young people, I assume, put together a pile of rocks around a tree halfway up the path and off to the side. You almost wouldn’t notice it because it blends so well into the desert terrain. But there it was, a wonder to behold. A large grouping of rocks all in the approximate shapes of hearts. Some of the rocks were written on and some were deliberately set in groupings around a tree.

I wondered how long it must have taken to find those rocks in the shape of a heart. How many hands worked to create this subtle message of love on this stoney path that walkers climb every day?

Some of the rocks had personal love messages. It was like stumbling on a gift; a reminder that love is the most important thing in life.

There was no agenda here, no religious platitudes, just messages about the truth of love and heart-shaped stones waiting to be happened upon when least expected.

I thank those people, these strangers for their imagination and creativity. The message of love was not only written on the rocks themselves, but given to any who wandered by and were careful to look, and in the thoughtful care that made this a true labor of love.