A Letter To A Friend

It’s just a fucking rock.

I’m not sure how much of Melbourne you’ve explored since your arrival last year; but not too far from Flinders Station there is a small anitquated arcade style passageway, which connects the beginning of Swanston street to Flinders Lane, and if you go inside you will find a flight of stairs that lead to a very old set of double doors. These doors are opened by a caretaker at 11am sharp every morning, giving the public access to a number of floors hosting boutique stores that occupy a once abandoned school building. It has one of the oldest lifts in all of Victoria. If you go up to the second floor, and take two lefts as you walk through the old school hallways, you will reach an opening with a sign above that reads ‘Muses Of Mystery’. Inside you can find all manner of spiritual artefacts and curiosities. One of those funky artefacts…is this stone.

It’s the ‘Stone Of The Guardians’ and the creepy-ass Adam’s Family-looking lady with long black hair and beady black eyes who runs the store claims it has the following properties: Mind, Calming, Support, Vitality.

I’m telling you all of this because both you and I know it doesn’t really mean anything. These spiritual things work for people, because they believe what they want to believe. It works, because they apply their own meaning to the objects. They quite literally manifest their own reality. By truly believing that a rock will bring you something, when you get that something, you credit the rock. And although it sounds ridiculous, that’s quite literally how everything works. There is no meaning to anything that you or I did yesterday, are doing today, or will do tomorrow -other than the meaning you give to it. It doesn’t matter what your mum thinks. It doesn’t matter what your dad thinks. It doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what your ex-boss, or ex-boyfriend thinks. It doesn’t matter what the girl who just got engaged thinks. It doesn’t matter what your mate who just got a promotion thinks. And It certainly doesn’t matter what society as a collective thinks. It matters what **you** think, even if you’re not quite sure what that is yet.

The only time you are truly yourself is when you don’t try, and do what comes naturally. Finding the balance between that, and a way we can all live together, is truly the greatest challenge we all face.

So with that said, to me, this stone is my way of saying that I want you to be safe. I love and care about you, and I am with you in spirit while you are off on your adventures. I hope it serves to remind you that when it all gets too much, you can always not even try and just let life come to you. Let this stone be a reminder to give in to the spirit of adventure under it's protective properties, but remember that if it all gets too much…it’s just a fucking rock.