Pebbles and Rocks – Does Anyone Ever Really Notice Them?

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We all should but most of us are busy going about our daily lives with nary a look at the scenery that surrounds us. I know that happens a lot where I live. Despite it being home to some of the most gorgeous scenery I’ve ever seen very few pay attention to the views all around them every day.


Rocks can be as large as mountains or as small as the smooth pebbles found in the bottom of a streambed. Trees and shrubs can grow out of the surfaces if there is a well that dirt has filled, giving them a place to take root. These plants survive off rainfall alone because, of course, it is impossible to push your roots through a massive rock.

Rocks, formed into their various sizes and shapes due to the elements and the ages, whether it is wind and water or earthquakes and other natural disasters. They have truly stood for all time, big or small, carved or smooth, and will continue to be part of Earth long after we’re all gone.

I’m sure we’ve all sat on a rock at some time during our lives, whether it was to contemplate some matter, to rest, or even to relax beside a river and fish.

In our youths, we’ve probably thrown smaller rocks at friends playing games that kids will play, or hunted for them in scavenger hunts, painted them for art projects, used them as doorstops, or thrown them into streams to watch the pools of water spiral out, or to see how many times they will skip before sinking.

However, you may ask, what does this have to do with books or writing? Well rocks exist in all genres of writing over the ages. Of course, they abound in history books and westerns, but we also see a lot of them in fantasy and sci-fi books where they take on mysterious elements. Of course, being a fantasy writer, I really like to put my imagination here. Looking out my window, I can imagine all sorts of things in the rocks and ledges in my back yard. Perhaps a completely secret world lives there in the crevices. Not to mention the one small pebble that may have some hidden magical power.

You’ll find rocks in books about family dramas, memoirs, geology books, children’s books, romance, and general fiction, as well as some famous books that have used rocks in scenes.

The next time you see a rock, maybe you’ll think about it differently than you have in the past.