Got Wood?

There is something very mind clearing and Zen like when going about a task without even thinking, just going through the motions like on auto pilot. Two weekends ago, I helped a neighbor of mine by removing a large tree that had fallen in his back yard during this particularly harsh winter. The weather was a bit on the cool side, in the 40's, but once you get working you work up quite the sweat. After dealing with the largest pieces and making sure everything was felled on the ground, I went to town on all the smaller stuff.


I restarted the chainsaw and went back to work. Trunks, limbs, branches, all fell to a wave of what became a motorized extension of my arm. I would pick a piece, start at the thickest part and work my way out, cutting into manageable pieces. I just fell into this rhythm, cut it, lift the next length onto the piece I just cut, and go again. I totally lost track of myself in the roar of that little motor. It wasn't until I ran out of gas that I realized how much I had torn through. My neighbor who was filling my truck with the cut up pieces, just stood there in shock. He said to me "you are way to comfortable with that thing, you scare me a bit", as a smile crossed his face.


You just loose yourself in the work, thoughts are gone, its only the job at hand in front of you.

The same thing happened this weekend. I've had all these pieces of cut up logs sitting in my driveway. I'd grab a wheel barrow full, take them out back to my chopping block, and just start splitting them, and piling them. With every fall of the ax, wood fly's through the air, the split half's shooting left and right. Again, lost in the rhythm, I'd no idea I was going at it for hours, the pile now three feet high and six feet across. The smell of fresly split wood brings a smile to my face.

Nothing in my head except the next piece of wood...
Very Zen like...