THE STORY

I received this inspiration during a hike on a cold, icy day at the Maryland Gold Mine Ruins, which sits along the Potomac River and serves as the border between Virginia and Maryland.  

At the beginning of covid, like most of us, I struggled with anxiety, so to help myself regain my mental equilibrium, I embarked on a hike to reconnect with myself and nature. 

I hiked to an outcrop of a metamorphosed gray-wacke directly adjacent to a section of the falls. Patches of ice and snow blanketed the gray rock like a polka-dotted quilt. I carefully navigated to an icy spot next to the cliff's edge. The rushing water roared through the channel and drops splashed onto the bank, crystallizing into ice. I laid my body on the frozen ground with my right arm over the edge; it was like lying between life and death; the rushing waters of the Potomac gently splashed my fingertips as in violently forced their way through the gorge. Reminding me to surrender my fears and let them flow away so I make room for new growth. 

As my practice continued, I noticed the fractures in the exposed rocks and how some were filled with snow. "The snow and ice weather the erosional resistant rocks; my life is fractured like this," I thought. Then, I thought, "I am fractured but also extremely erosional resistant." In my moment of epiphany, I thought, "I was going to fill all my fractures & veins with gold, but what if the gold is love." 

Ironically gold is found in the veins of this particular rock which inspired me to call the design "gold vein." Love is gold.