My Quantum Quattro arrived yesterday and I couldn't have been more overjoyed. I felt like a child for the last few days, eagerly waiting for the package to arrive. The box, containing five 2" stones originally came from Namibia, Africa, the only place in the world where Quantum Quattro is found. It was first discovered in 1996 and it wasn't discovered by me until about three weeks ago. Since then, I have been obsessing over where and how to get my hands on this rare stone. It's amazing how something like a rock could bring me such excitement and wonderment. But I think about it and realize it isn't so strange after all. My grandfather taught my mom about the awareness of earth's little treasures all around us and she, in turn, taught me. I guess that comes with the territory when you are a simple family without much means. You learn to look at the beauty around you and wait for treasures to be found in the most obscure places. For my mother and I, it was at the beach along the shore or on the ground, looking for rocks that caught our eye. Sometimes they were sparkly, sometimes they were just shaped funny or made of some "mysterious" composite. But regardless, they were our found treasures and we became attached to them, each one with their own story. My sister shares a love for gemstones also. In fact, she found a crystal geode in her back yard last year! Some people reading this may find our fascination with "rocks" bizarre, silly or even frivolous, but I tend the think otherwise. I almost wonder if it's our natural human instinct to look at the earth's natural resources for comfort, connection, usefulness and entertainment. Prehistoric humans used rocks as early as 2,000,000 B.C. Flint and other hard rocks were important raw materials for crafting arrowheads and other tools. By 500,000 B.C., rock caves and structures made from stones had become important forms of shelter for humans. In the metaphysical aspect, crystals are used for balancing chakras and healing. For example, Quantum Quattro is said to be useful for healing the immune system, grief of past trauma and complete alignment of all chakras as well as mental clarity when placed on the third eye. I am not exactly sure of the powerful allure that minerals have. Perhaps our rocks are just a hobby and all of this means nothing or perhaps we just want something tangible to believe in that we can see, study, touch, hold. Or maybe it's just in our DNA to be curious enough about something much older than ourselves. Maybe it's the idea that rocks hold the past of our existence. Within their layers of time, our history is written.
