Thunderstones (and Other Ridiculous Stories)

Anti-clockwise: beach pebbles, seal tooth, bear claw, "special stone", "Thunderstone".

I'm glad the adults in my childhood were really good at make-believe and story telling, because it makes these fantastic little bits of nature all the more interesting. I'm in the process of movings houses, so I was sorting through some of my collection - a lot of them being unintentionally accumulated over the years. I thought it might be interesting to upload a few of them. 

I don't have much to say about the beach pebbles. As a kid I would spend hours on the beach picking out the prettiest little stones. To be honest, I still can't help myself, but now that I'm older, I feel like I'm more aware of the chilly water and dreary weather (Victoria in the summer is, for the most part, not the sunny of places), so a lot less time is spent picking through the sand. 

My Great Grandmother Kirk was a worldly woman. My family always has some quirky story about her, how creative she was, all the interesting places she traveled. I wish she was still here. Her possible contributions to this blog would've been far better than mine! But even well-traveled individuals spend time mucking about in the sand, much like kid-me did. My Oma tells me what's when she stumbled upon the seal tooth. 

Okay yes, I realise this post's title promises ridiculous stories, and this isn't at all outrageous, so, moving on...

Well, apparently Grandmother Kirk really got around, because, according to family folklore, during one of her many adventures, she met a hunter/poacher (the details pertaining to his exact animal-killing profession are a little foggy). They had an interesting chat, and then, before taking his leave, he gave her a the bear claw. Why? Who knows, but I thank him for it, because now, about thirty years later, I'm in possession of a very cool bear claw. Upon doing some research (some very spotty research, mind you), I've come to the conclusion that it's probably a grizzly claw. I'm taking into account the colouration, the length (it's about the size of my forefinger), and the curve of it. If I'm mistaken, please chime in!

To be honest, the triangle, or "special stone" as dubbed by my mother, is not all that remarkable. It's interesting, of course, how it was chiseled into that shape by the ebbing of water, or the grinding of rock against rock, and yet, it pales in comparison to a seal tooth or a bear claw. My mother managed to make it interesting though. My mother is Muslim, but despite this, she still clings to her Javanese roots. You need to understand that the Javanese have a very rich culture, much of it being very animistic. She told me a story about how the spirits (who are supposedly invisible, I might add), rub at stones when they're worried. The stone that take interesting shapes, are the ones the spirits have rubbed with worry the most. This is the thing I find remarkable; that such old beliefs like this have survived, and still live with us today, especially in people who are otherwise quite modern.

My Aunt gave this to me. We were picnicking at Bright Angel Park on Vancouver Island, perched on the pebbles by the shallow stream that runs just under the suspension bridge. There are literally stones everywhere, but she spies this one from among the hundreds of thousands. She gives it to me and tells me "It's a Thunderstone. It was split in half by lightning. It froze the inside of the rock, and turned it crystal." Well, she's a very intelligent woman, so there's no doubt she made it sounds more sophisticated and scientific than that, but you get the gist of it. I thought this was the coolest thing ever, until I realized several years later that firstly, that is not how geodes are formed, and secondly, lighting would absolutely obliterate a little stone like that. Regardless both the stone and the story stayed with me.