Wood Warms You Twice

 

It's that time of year again on La Belle Farm. Farmer Bill and I have been carrying the wood in from our drying room and then stacking it in the dining room where we keep our wood burning stove. (Okay, mostly Farmer Bill). Once our stove is fired up, it does an excellent job of keeping our big old drafty 1820 home warm and cozy.

The other day while stacking the wood, Farmer Bill brought up Henry David Thoreau—the famous naturalist, transcendentalist and author of Walden. He told me how Thoreau said that fire wood warms you twice—in the splitting and stacking and then again in the burning.

Yes, it's true--Farmer Bill is not only a retired scientist, a self-taught farmer, but he also quotes Thoreau. You can see why a gal would be madly in love with him even after all these years of married life.

I’ve always been a fan of Henry David Thoreau—not just because he was friends with Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, but because he wrote about the importance of being present to the here and now and appreciating the natural world. He believed in embracing the ordinary and seemingly mundane chores of our everyday lives. Yes, even stacking wood or washing dishes can be a transcendent experience.

Creative Friends, before you can enter the home where genius resides, you need to get a little heated up, a little sweaty. You first need to cut and carry and stack. Perhaps you've come to think of some chore as stealing time from your true calling--your art. However, I would like you take a page of Thoreau and re-look at that work--washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, carrying the wood--and consider how it will warm you so that your brilliance can shine bright and last a very long time.

Certainly, through the long, cold winter.

Happy New York!

Love,

Jamie