Kurt Vonnegut wrote once that the arts are a very human way to make a living, to make life more bearable. Practicing art, he wrote, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. Creating something lifts the spirit and gives us purpose.

Like everyone else, I see rocks every day, all over the place and rarely considered them in the context of art or beauty. I am married to a true artist, and when you live with an artist, you come to see the beauty in many things that are just too close to see.

Recently, we had to clean out and restore our fish tank, which was clouding up. It’s a 40-gallon tank, and we love watching he fish and snails, it took the better part of a day to clean it up.

It was my idea to think about putting rocks in there, which was surprising. It was Maria’s idea to create some rock cultures. It was such a simple idea, yet I’d never once thought of it before.

I just never thought of rocks as being beautiful, and Maria knew intuitively how to make that happen. In fact she was way ahead of me, there are rocks of all sizes and colors on almost every windowsill in the house. Maria has always seen the beauty around her.

She went out and collected a bunch of small rocks, she chose the colors carefully as well as the size. She put her rock sculptures together in the same way she makes her quilts, she doesn’t see a pile of stones, she sees the whole sculpture.

We have rejected artificial castles or plastic plant, our tank is all-natural. It’s a simple tank, not a fancy thing with fish of sizes or shapes. We went for simplicity and our fish have thrived for a long time. We have three goldfish, and about a dozen snails, snails are so important to maintaining the eco-system of a freshwater fish tank.

Maria has taught me many things, one of the most important is to see the beauty in the natural world. Mother Nature is the world’s greatest artist.

I have learned to see beauty everywhere because it is everywhere.  Vonnegut was wise in his quote, our work here is a very human way to make a living. I believe working for money is a form of slavery, and I don’t care to be anyone’s slave.

I love the way these stones look, they have character, color, and strength. The tank looks wonderful, simple and natural.

The fish are very happy, swimming in and our the sculptures, some of the snails have taken up residence on top of them.

I look at rocks in a completely different way now, and since there stones everywhere, I can see beauty everywhere. I didn’t even grasp that stones have all kinds of colors and lines.

I feel in recent years I have begun to awaken to life, as well as to compassion and empathy. I guess you might say I am awoke.