The season has slowly been turning from lush, warm late summer weather to chill fall. Right now, I am enjoying yard work and clearing the garden. These become my favorite type of exercise because I know that soon I’ll be bundled against the cold, and looking to the woodpile for my exercise as I bring wood in daily to feed the woodstove.
Meaning in the Work
I hate gyms and prefer to get my exercise through “thoughtful” labor. And that is hard to do outside in the winter. Winter used to be a time for working in the wood lot. I’d be cutting down and sectioning wood that I’d later take the maul to for splitting. However, I no longer have access to the wood lot, and an aging body no longer wants to put punishing hours in bucking trees into drums for splitting. I still split lots of kindling every week, though.
Last night I sacked out early after most of a full day spent finishing the garden harvest and clearing out the debris of the gardening season. About a very small basket of late onions, and what seems like hundreds of the final tomatoes of the season. What’s left? The last small tender picking of kale leaves that are still growing, and the Brussels sprouts that are still developing. By the time I was finished for the day, I was sweaty, a bit scratchy, and definitely tired. Rather than exacerbating the tiredness into overworked muscles and strained ligaments, I’ll take a slower pace today. My wife and I will go to a bookstore with a cafe, and I’ll exercise by walking up and down aisles, and lifting a hot latte.
A main difficulty, as I age, is finding activities that keep me physically and mentally involved. My work with wood as a carver, and my garden, are large contributors. But also heating with wood. It’s not just the physical aspects of stacking and loading, but also bringing it in. Anyone with a woodstove will tell you that there is an art to heating, wisely, effectively, and safely with wood. My desire to keep the physical and the mental linked is why I find the gym so tedious. Its also why every winter I struggle to keep enough physical activities and wind up with a ceaseless search for good involving exercise.
Towards a Philosophy?
If there is a philosophical part to this, it’s best summed up in this quote from Bishop Fulton J Sheen. I may be twisting his meaning a bit to fit my purposes, but I find it relevant: “If you do not live what you believe, you will end up believing what you live.”
Discover more from Louis N. Carreras, Woodcarver
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Those onions look gorgeous!
And they taste better than the store-bought ones…but a certain female kitty decided that the real small ones were balls, and we’ll be discovering onions in odd places till January.
Haha! A treasure hunt that you never knew you needed (and probably didn’t want)!
I’ll know I’m really in trouble if they start gathering round as I read about Catorze’s exploits.
Love the quote. Life can become a self fulfilling prophesy, might as well take the lead.
It’s easy to be a passive absorber of what you get handed in life. But life is much more enjoyable if you take an active role in shaping it.
Thanks for visiting and commenting!
You’re welcome.
That quote brought tears to my eyes.
I cleaned out the bean”field” yesterday. As I worked I thought of how things had been for me in spring when I planted those beans. I felt really proud of myself for what I managed with a walker then a cane, that I’d covered the babies, that I’d cut down the wire fence to make it easier to work in there, all kinds of things. There were a few dried pods and the “babies” that came from them are beautiful.
Beautiful Quote.
I love that quote! Hugs
He was a wise man.
My father has no short term memory now. He has lost his driver’s licence after crashing the car into the house and shed. His balance is also terrible but he still splits wood. This worries me a lot.
It would scare the hell out of me too!