Woodworkers’s Guide to Taking Over the World
Joining the time honored trade of woodworking has been a life changing event for myself and many others through the ages. It’s a practice that can mirror so many aspects of life that will show up at seemingly unlikely times and with just a little trust one can easily start to see these insights.
My first interaction with this concept was at time in my life when everything I thought I knew about myself and the world had changed. I had recently become sober and adjusting to this new life was proving very difficult. I was experiencing a new kind of anxiety along with a host of other issues that I really just had to sit with and let pass.
My wife and daughter went for a week’s vacation and I had to stay home because I felt at the time I had already missed enough work and didn’t want my employer to have to have another temporary fill in so soon after my return to work. During that week I took it upon myself to make an entertainment center for our living room television. Using 2x4’s as a frame and reclaimed wood as well as pallet wood for the shelves and sides. Something happened during that build that changed me in the moment. I had spent the last 25 years finding the quickest and (maybe) the most efficient way to do things while working in high paced, stressful kitchens. That was proving not to be an energy I would be able to bring to woodworking. It was mainly during the sanding and finishing phase where I was forced to slow down that I discovered how this action was actually settling my mind, and my overall anxiety levels. I had already taken on a yoga practice so I was somewhat familiar with breathwork, but I found it was even more effective incorporating the breathwork into the strokes of my hand while slowly applying finish. Slowly breathing out while applying, and inhaling while gathering more finish in my brush. (There’s an metaphor in there somewhere too!!!) The dichotomy of the toxic finish and the mindful activity were not lost on me at the time either. After that first coat was applied and I stood back to admire my work I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Now, this was by no means a high quality entertainment center….but I had created it with my hands from a thought I had in my head. And just like that my new addiction was born.
I hope to bring Insights and allegories such as this to this blog from my experiences as well as the experiences of my woodworking friends and colleagues. There is a vast body of insights, lessons, and understanding we all get from our work and woodworking I feel has so much to offer in this regard. I do look forward to sharing these experiences with future clients and friends in the hopes we can use these to better ourselves, to better understand ourselves, and the world around us.
#WWGTOW
