Lately I find myself becoming more aware of the blessings my life has provided me. It was earlier this year that I found myself standing in my garage on a beautiful spring day, carving away at a billet of Pennsylvania Cherry from a tree that had come down on the property of a friend of mine.

The weather was perfect; my tools were surgically honed; the background music was spot on; and I had absolutely no other requirements in the middle of this pleasant Tuesday afternoon except to be where I was, to do what I was doing, and to let the rest of world rumble on about its own damn business.

I found myself thinking that I could really be this guy. And then another thought immediately followed: “I AM this guy.”

It’s a different kind of life these days: Simpler. Less demanding. Working on healing the wounds of the past in an effort not to inflict any more in the present; or at the very least, nothing that a BAND-AID or two and little hydrogen peroxide can’t fix.

Chipping away at life.

It’s a good place to be…