It is such a gorgeous day today. The late Autumn colors are everywhere, although not so much on the trees as they are on the ground now. While walking through the woods today I spied an Old One that had snapped well above my reach and had come crashing down to rest upon the ground.
She didn't look sad there laying across her brothers and sisters, some of whom I am sure she crushed in her fall. The crushed ones didn't seem sad either. Everything was as it should be. There in her heart, which had remained standing, lied the most promising wood I had seen yet. Good old heart wood in convenient big splinters that I just might be able to break off.
I grabbed a hold of a splinter that stood near her heart with both hands and pulled. Nothing. I pulled harder and gave it a little bounce this time. CRack.. I pulled again, crACK. It would come. The splinter was way more wood than I needed. I looked again at the Old One and thanked her for her death. Thanked her for her gift to me and for all the others that would benefit from her fall. With a final sharp CRACK the splinter broke free.
I began working to split off a more reasonably sized piece of wood. I wasn't having much luck with my ka-bar. Then I remembered a trick I had seen at Nishnajida1 the week before. I found a suitable "hammer" and proceeded to set my ka-bar in the splinter and began hammering on the top of the knife. A nice piece of wood cleaved off. This was something I could work with. I whittled on the wood a bit, sawed it half, and stuck it in my jacket.
Later that afternoon I was looking for a reason to be outside. Well, the reason was the glorious day, but I wanted a project to work on while I enjoyed being outside. Grabbing a smaller knife I retrieved the piece of wood and proceeded to whittle away. Before long I was beginning to see a pair of chop sticks taking form. A few more slices... turn it over... square or round? A bit shorter? While trying to decide what to do with the ends, I began carving them to a point. Hmm, this was an interesting idea. Chop sticks with points on the ends... that could be useful as long as you were aware enough not to stab yourself in the face with them. I chuckled to myself thinking that was probably precisely why I couldn't buy pair that way.
After a little more "fine tuning" I found myself using quite possibly the best pair of chop sticks I had ever had the pleasure of manipulating. For many moons now I had been wanting to buy some chop sticks but I hadn't been able to find any in the grocery store and I would often forget to look in a store where they might be found. I thought about picking some up from a thrift store but the idea of somebody else's used chopsticks didn't really settle well with me. Then while visiting Nishnajida I had seen a pair of sticks protruding from a brother's front shirt pocket.
"Chop sticks?", I asked him curiously as the pragmatism of his choice began to dawn on me.
"Yep, made them myself. They are really useful out here."
Yeah, I thought to myself, I bet they really are useful and I bet you could make a really nice pair. All this time I had been looking for chop sticks when all I had to do was make some. Which, it turns out, was something wonderful to do while hiking and sitting in the sun this afternoon. Not only that, but I had crafted the best darn pair of chop sticks I had ever used. As an added bonus I didn't have to worry about how "appropriately" these chop sticks had been manufactured, shipped, stored, sold, purchased, and neither did I have to worry about how they would be disposed of. Once my time with these chop sticks was finished, they would return beneficially back into the Earth that had given birth to them, at which time I could make myself another pair.
How simple. How freeing. Rather than being caught up with everything that I was putting into buying a pair of chop sticks, I now had a perfect pair. I didn't need to go to the store anymore. I didn't need to get into my fossil fueled truck and go somewhere to get them. Which meant I didn't need money to put into my truck or into buying the chop sticks in the first place. Which means I didn't need to get a job. Which meant I would have time to craft myself a beautiful pair of chop sticks on a beautiful Autumn afternoon. Simple, elegant, Free at last...