My neighbor's new gravel driveway made me think about river rocks

I was helping my neighbor spread a load of gravel for his driveway last month, and he said something that stuck with me. He pointed at the pile and said, 'All these little rocks, they used to be big ones. They just got tired.' It was a simple way to put it, but it made me look at the gravel differently. I realized I was looking at the END of a long trip for those stones. They started as part of a mountain or a cliff face somewhere, got broken off, and then spent maybe thousands of years getting rolled smooth in a river or glacier before someone dug them up and crushed them a bit more for a driveway. It's wild to think my feet are on the final stop of a journey that took longer than human history. It makes you see the ground under you in a whole new way. Has anyone else had a moment like that with something totally ordinary?

3 comments

3 Comments

zara_garcia25d ago

So what's the final stop for us then?

ruby_rivera7625d ago

It's like that with old wooden furniture too, all the dents and scratches are just its own long trip.

king.andrew16d ago

Guess we're all just furniture, @zara_garcia, waiting for the final polish.