Cairns...messengers in stone

Cairns, rock piles that are man made,

have always fascinated me.

While visiting Looking Glass Falls in North Carolina,

I turned to look downstream,

and saw this.....

It was standing there,

put together like children's building blocks.

About 6-8 ft. tall, it stood there,

a silent sentinal for my imagination.

One person, or many,

may have contributed to this flat rock pile.

David Williams, acclained nature writer,

has a book called....

Cairns, Messengers in Stone.

Cairns usually have some sort of purpose,

but some are just there for beauty and artistic reasons.

A few years back, I saw the very large cairn at

Henry David Thoreau's home site at Waldon Pond.

I contributed my stone, as I have to many other cairns.

Cairns have an ancient history,

at one time being built for protective energy.

There is a traditional

Scottish blessing, Cuiridh mi clach air do charn,

which means....

I will put a stone on your cairn.

Savor the Day!

Yvonne

Cairn and a small stone

I have been wanting to put up photos with my 'small stone' posts.

Looking through my photo files I realized I have lots of photos I could use.

So, for the next month, during this River of Stones project,

I will have a "stone" photo posted along with my "small stone" words.

The two will most likely not be related,

but I hope you enjoy them.

The above photo is from one of my trips to New England.

My best friend Lana and I took an authors tour

of our own, visiting sites related to Thoreau,

Emerson, Hawthorne and others.

Lana is placing a small 'stone'

on the cairn at Waldon Pond.

You can visit Lana's blog at

Lana's Threads and Musings

Small Stone for today...

Salvia, sage, santolina

humbly obedient to rains kiss

their sharp, pleasant smells

rising under the cresent moon

Savor the Day!

Yvonne