How I Fell In Love with Rocks and Crystals

I spent my early childhood growing up in northeast Philadelphia. We lived in a rowhouse - this very one in fact - and despite our patch of lawn out front, most of our neighborhood was typical Philly rowhouse with lots of concrete.

I first remember becoming fascinated with rocks when I was probably about 5 or so. When walking to school, I noticed these really cool white rocks in a neighbors yard and a couple had spilled onto the sidewalk. I picked one up. It had shiny faces and planes and was unlike anything I had ever seen. I felt like I had discovered a rare pirate’s treasure!

This little rock - a piece of quartz gravel from the edging in my neighbor’s yard - was the first of many many rocks that I would find, usually small pieces tucked in under a tree or in a park or playground. I wondered how these rocks came to be, where they came from, and, once I discovered they were millions of years old, I was hooked. To hold a bit of the history of our planet in my hand felt heady, like I could tap into ancient times and feel the very pulse of the earth!

I’m sure I wasn’t so poetic about it at five or six or even ten, but my love of rocks, geology and crystals grew with age. When I was eight, we moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia and lived on the edge of woods stretching off to be explored, bursting with rocks everywhere - granite, quartz, blue quartz, shale, calcite - which I gathered and meticulously read books to discover what they were and how they had formed. I still have my battered, dog chewed copy of Rocks and Minerals by Golden Books that I continue to reference to this day. Every time I look at this book and explore its pages, I feel transported back to Langhorne, PA, our backyard and woods, and a little stream where I used to dig for special finds.

My parents were big on family outings to museums and historic places, and Bucks County and Philadelphia are chockfull of all sorts of experiences. One of my favorite things to do was walk on the granite cobblestones in South Philadelphia, the same cobblestones that Benjamin Franklin walked on, and dream about life back then, or go to the Natural History Museum or the Franklin Institute or the University of Pennsylvania museum. There are beautiful crystal specimens in each of these - and gems embedded in ancient artifacts - and I marveled at them all. One of my favorite outing memories was going to a lapidary museum somewhere out in Bucks County where there were such beautiful crystals, huge, colorful and amazing. My brother and I were able to have one crystal each - I had a wulfenite, which I still have, and he had a vanadinite, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Fast forward to adulthood. I continued to collect rocks and crystals - I had collected a couple of nice pieces of quartz crystal over the years, along with my wulfenite and an arrowhead I found long ago. And then I started learning about crystal healing. I was a complete skeptic until I was going through a rough time in my mid 20’s. I was at a shamanic spiritual workshop, getting support from the group, when two of the women present pressed clear quartz crystals into each of my hands. I was told to focus on the crystals and my hands became hot, the crystals feeling like they had a pulse, like they were almost pliable. A soft peace came over me. I felt a weight lift.

From that point on, I understood the potential healing power of crystals. I have studied at length and practiced on myself and loved ones. I am a huge believer, not in books or guides or encyclopedias with pat answers on which crystal heals what, but in intuition and body knowing and finding what works for YOU. Even though I share general healing uses for crystals on my website and recommend particular books for reference, I am an absolute believer that it is up to each person to decide what works best for you. The power of knowing that each of us has is untapped and waiting for us to trust our intuition. Trust it!

Now, in my cronehood, when I hold a crystal in my hand and see a rainbow flash, my heart soars and I become as giddy as I was at five years old finding my first piece of quartz. Whatever it is, whatever the connection, rocks, crystals and minerals are my happy place, an endless discovery of the amazing beauty of our planet, our home, and one that brings me immense joy.

Join our community on Substack and share about your love of crystals in the comments and the group chat! Where did you first find the thrill of collecting and being in the presence of the innate beauty and power of rocks, crystals and minerals?