People have thought that this is some sort of spiritual alter that I keep in my truck…it’s not…at least not on purpose.
I tried really hard to keep my truck tidy that first year I owned it.
But eventually I start picking stuff up and it gets tossed upon some surface in there. It’s the stuff I pick up wandering around in the wilderness. There’s the knot of a pine tree, a devils claw, some really huge flat rocks (I thought they’d make really great skipping stones someday) and a bunch of turkey feathers from the Ranch.
There use to be the the shed skin of a garter snake that one of the little girls that lived at the Ranch gave me. That’s not as creepy as it sounds. At least I don’t think it’s creepy. I was really touched by it; she had met me once as a three year old and then again a year later. But the second time we were all being busy grown ups and the kids were playing, so I never really talked to her more that a quick, HI. But before I left, she grabbed me and gave me the snake skin. and she said she’d been waiting for me to come back so she could give it to me. That was all, she never said anymore about it. It was a gift and you should always take gifts from children. It rode in my car till it crumbled away.
The Marvel stone. That was just one on my grandmother’s paper weights that had her name on it.
I had talked my mom out of it one day this spring. As I was going home I found it very useful for pinning down those feathers. It was spring and I was riding with the window down more and I was always regathering those feathers cause they’d get blown around by the wind.
One day someone decided to ask me if that was an alter. I laughed and asked them why they thought that. I guess they thought with all the little nature trinkets pinned under the MARVEL stone that was just my little reminder, my little worship, Like: “Remember To Marvel At Life.” or something like that.
I took this picture not long after that. I was sitting in my car reflecting on that paper weight and realized: my grandmothers name was MARVEL. What an amazing name to have. I never in my life put her name and the definition together. She was such a practical woman. But she was a marvel in her own down to earth way.
So, yes, now it is in there to remind me: Always Marvel At Life.
Particularly at the treasures you find when you’re out wandering about in the wilderness -they are the best!
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