Dry stone Walls

I love walking in the dales and looking across the amazing patchwork quilt-like fields.

Each field has a beautifully crafted dry stone wall as its border.

Dry stone walls intrigue me. They have no cement to hold it together.

Yet, a well-made wall can last up to 100 to 150 years.

The builder starts with a good foundation, then chooses flat, wide stones and small stones to fill up the gaps. I found out that this technique is called hearting.

I started thinking about walls in general. A brick wall is solid and immovable, with each brick identical to the others. Whereas a dry stone wall can be dismantled and rebuilt, even moved to another part of the field if required.

I like how the dry stone wall is made up of stones of all shapes and sizes.

Each one is packed together, all needing each other to fulfil its purpose.

Walls are boundaries. They keep animals safely in their fields and keep predators out.

In life, we need boundaries to keep ourselves safe.

If we build brick walls around ourselves, we can end up trapped.

We may miss out on beautiful connections because we won't let people close to us.

We may even build a spiritual brick wall, preventing God from doing the work inside us that needs to be addressed.

A dry stone wall depicts community. We were created to be together, to include one another, and to accept one another's differences. I love that the word for filling the gaps in the wall with smaller stones is called hearting.

How wonderful it would be if we saw someone on their own and said, "Come be with us", and included them in our community.

That's called hearting and dry stone walling.

... I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart. Ezekial 11:19