Stone on Stone

A few cold spring days at the Highlights Foundation at Boyds Mills, PA, for a writers’ workshop. A wonderful opportunity to learn and write.

Recently the Highlights Foundation added a new building, using part of the foundations of an old barn. The new space is a cozy yet roomy classroom and meeting place on the inside. On the outside it’s a maze of intricate stonework.

The lichened and weathered rocks of the old barn foundation support the newer stones. Enormous chunks of bluestone pave the classroom, the porch, even the bathrooms. The walls are mosaics of rough-hewn stones, each piece with its own beauty.

It must have taken an enormous amount of work and time to balance all those stones on one another.

Writing is like that–word piled on word piled on word. Sometimes it’s harder than hauling rocks.

Just around the corner from the Barn are more stones. Dozens of them lie scattered at random on the ground. I noticed odd scratchings on the tops of the flat stones.

When I looked closely, I discovered what these stones were for.

It’s a poetry garden. The perfect place to practice building with words.