Today is my father’s birthday. Actually I need to rewrite that a little differently. Today would be my father’s birthday if he were still alive. It’s one of those days where the ones who remember him think back on the real gifts in life, our memories. So…in remembrance I would like to share one of the good memories I have of my father….rock hunting with my dad.

My dad always told me he was born on the 6th at home and he was registered on August 8th because his parents registered him for a birth certificate days later.

When I was a little girl one of our favorite things to do together was go out rock hunting. Living in Arizona this is easy to do, there are not only all kinds of beautiful desert hiking trails out there but there are also all kinds of rocks just laying around to discover.

Sometimes my father would go deer hunting, but I believe he mostly just wanted to be out in nature because he never really came home with deer, but he would come home with stones. He loved showing me the rocks he found. He would gift me with them. It was our thing. I still have some of these rocks he found.

One of my favorite rocks has an unusual shape to it and when you hold it up to the light it has these really vibrant colors of deep blue, orange/red. green…like the deepest colors of Christmas lights. It’s hard to explain.

I remember one time taking this particular stone to a Jeweler in the mall I worked at and asking the jeweler what the stone was…

“It’s covered on the outside but if polished you can see it has a rainbow of dark sparkling colors within it.”

The jeweler held it up in the light and put on his light up magnifying glasses and all he could say as he admired it was….

“Where did you find this ? “

“My dad…he gave it to me, we used to rock hunt together when I was kid”

The jeweler had no idea what it was but suggested it could be some sort of opal.

That’s when I pulled out another rock my father gave me.

“Like this…” and I handed the jeweler an opal with pastel colors.

The jeweler took the little stone and said yes, like this maybe.

The dark opal is what I call the other stone, as I really don’t know what it is…just some rock my father gave me, and one of my favorite gifts I have. It reminds me of our hiking adventures together.

Then there is was one rock I would receive from my father that was the prize rock in all the rocks he had found. It was his favorite one he owned. It’s heavy when you hold it, a very strange stone I remember thinking to myself as I held it in my own hand the day I was gifted with it. It was the last rock I would receive from him. He gifted me with his most prized possession.

All those years of him walking around Arizona, the woods, the deserts…so much open land. My father would find his most prized rock of all time. He found a meteorite.

It’s the memories of these simple little gifts of kindness that tell the best stories in life. These stones represent those memories we share with one another, sharing our adventures and explorations of seeing a new place…and I don’t know..again, it’s not so easy right now explaining it all. Remember when…remember this..it’s how most conversations start out…and that’s when a story is born. In that moment…a memory is gifted.

Those little stones from the past are the gifts that never end.

Copyright Our Little Red House 2026