wood

I love tactile things. You know this about me. I love to use my body & to feel the world that I interact  with. I feel most alive when I am knitting, gardening, cooking, hiking, riding my bike, playing sports. I knitted during most of my graduate school courses, because my brain turns off (and I mean OFF) when I just have to sit still & listen to someone lecture. 

My body particularly likes interacting with natural elements. With a few exceptions, I absolutely hate artificial & synthetic materials. I'm sure there's a smidge of snobbiness to that, but for me, it's primarily a sensory thing that I've had as long as I can remember. Depending on the element or material, I can feel instantly grounded (like with wood, dirt, water, wool) or instantly stressed (like with plastic, metal, acrylic). I experience a similar effect in all my other senses too, but I won't take you on that tangent today. The point is that I'm strongly impacted by my environment - a reality that I'm learning to simultaneously accept & grow through. 

I'm telling you about this, because I was in natural tactile bliss this weekend. Baine & I spent the weekend knocking out some house projects. While it was challenging to do so much work in a weekend, I felt grounded and, at times, giddy with pleasure from the experience. In addition to each project engaging my body, I realized that I had spent the entirety of yesterday interacting with various forms of wood. If it weren't for all the traffic noise (not so natural), I'd be tempted to just set up camp in my yard for the summer. Instead, I'll leave you with some pics of yesterday's process:

Stocking up on firewood for the winter.

I was squealing when we finished stacking this yesterday. My fire & firewood obsession continues. 

Spreading a big pile of wood chips in the garden

Finally finishing the back part of our fence.

When I look at these pictures, I can smell the raw lumber, the eucalyptus leaves in the wood chips, and the freshly sawed maple & oak firewood. Our home is literally protected, decorated, nourished, and warmed by these gorgeous pieces of wood. What a miraculous element. I'm so grateful we have the means for all of this. It is pure luxury & peace.