Standing Rocks
By George Herrick Lasua
Posted on
In the crisp morning chill of late autumn, I walked along the beach at Mercy by the Sea, feeling as grey as the sky. I was going through a very painful transition in life ̶ one of those that, if seen through, makes you more aware of all that is good about you, and if not… well, not. It was early enough in the process that I could not see any outcome, good or bad. I felt lost.
Mindlessly, I picked up a stone and carried it some yards until its coolness crept through my thin glove and caught my conscious attention. Flat, rough, grey as the day. I half smiled, “Yup, that about sums me up.”
I gazed around the beach, and a few more stones called to me. I gathered them very intentionally then walked to a large boulder. I stacked the stones, in no rush despite the cold. Once I began to focus all my attention on balancing the stones one atop the other, purposely challenging the smaller to hold the larger and the smooth to hold the rough so that the stack appeared impossible to stand on its own, once I was immersed in that process, I felt no cold, no pain, no grey.
As a long-time teacher of meditation, I knew I had entered a Theta state of deep relaxation. I began to meditate more purposefully, and a message of inspiration channeled through me. I wrote the message and photographed the cairn before returning to my room.
As an aside, I will say this was not my first experience with building cairns. A cairn is a stack, heap or pile of stones which serves a particular function, depending on where you are and the local culture. It may serve as a monument, mile marker, directional indicator or altar, and people all over the world have made them for millennia.
Today, many artists use cairns as their medium, sometimes stacking the most elaborate, surrealistic forms as the sculptural expression of the vision. I have made them in numerous places at various times over many years. For me, it is sometimes a form of meditation and at other times, creative play.
Back in my room at the Center, I posted my photograph and meditation on Facebook. It was a way of being with my emotions, accepting my need to express myself creatively, and honoring my desire to connect with others, all without having to actually talk about the exact nature of what was going on within me. I let the picture and the words reach out.
That was November 2, 2014, and I have published a cairn meditation on Facebook every day since. Many were done at Mercy by the Sea over the past two-plus years. Only three times have I used a cairn I didn’t make, and never have I used a meditation I didn’t write. It has become a daily ritual, the core of my spiritual practice. The daily practice was an anchor, a beacon and a vessel for me as I navigated the painful process I was in, and I emerged on the other side a better man, I believe, than when I began. It was a healing process for me and those close to me.
I have incorporated cairns into some of my work as a workshop, retreat and ceremony leader. There is such a connection and alignment possible between nature, the divine and the sacred self through the metaphor and symbolism of these stacks of stones, these standing rocks.
The exhibit, “Standing Rocks,” which will hang at The Mary C. Daly, RSM Art Gallery until February 19, comprises many of the paintings that were inspired by my daily cairns. When I paint, of course, I am not constrained by the laws of gravity or science, and I have the freedom and luxury to “float” the stones, make them abstract, hyper-colorize them, alter their texture, or manipulate them in any way I choose, based on how I feel and what I want to experiment with. I have been able to create some interesting forms with actual stone, but painting allows me to do the impossible. In this way, it is an entirely different form of meditation, one that is entirely of the imagination.
The title of the exhibit, “Standing Rocks” is inspired from the current events at Standing Rock, North Dakota, where the indigenous water protectors are standing firm in their resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. As they stand, individually and together, in defense of sacred land, they invite all of us to stand for what matters to us in our own hearts. Again, it is the alignment and balance between nature, the divine and the sacred self that makes us connected, and in this way, we are each a cairn – for ourselves and each other.
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