I haven’t seen Claire’s best friend in over a decade—she left to photograph the world and only recently returned to our coastal city. Her house was like a mini-museum: masks from Kenya, shells from the Maldives and baskets from Peru. While she was making coffee, I wandered through the rooms and admired the souvenirs, and suddenly noticed a bucket with something that looked like perfectly rounded gray stones.
When I touched one of the “stones”, my fingers fell through — it turned out to be warm and soft, as if alive. The bucket seemed to breathe slightly, and I jumped back in fright. Claire laughed.: these were lithops, “living stones” that she brought back from Namibia. They disguise themselves as rocks to survive in the desert, and indeed look like small breathing boulders.
I sat down next to him and began to examine the cracks, from which a green fleshy body peeked out, and in some even tiny white flowers bloomed. The sun coming through the window made this scene almost magical — ordinary things were revealed from a new angle and caused delight.
Claire said that these plants have taught her a lot.: beauty is often hidden under the simple, you just need to look closely. I sat with her, sipping coffee, and realized that over the years she had changed in the distance — she had become calmer and deeper. Maybe we should judge less by our appearance and look more closely at what seems ordinary.
