An Antidote for Holiday Stress

The Peace of Wild Things


When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


— Wendell Berry

Awesome Green Idea for Picnic Cutlery

Remember those wooden spoons you used to eat your ice cream cup at school?

Now they have these on Etsy -

 

I Did It Myself!!

Mom said I used to shriek, "I'll do it myself!" back in toddler days when learning to dress or get in the car. Those of you who know me now, I am sure, can not imagine I would have started that so young. ;)

Yesterday I completed another do-it-myself project. I assembled a bathroom cabinet from its tiny pieces. The entire time I was struggling with the drill or putting pieces on backwards or trying to decide which way the hinges go, I kept hearing my son in the background going, "Mom! Do it this way! No. That's not going to work. Try it... Oh... What are you...oh, I can't watch this!" He has rather a condescending attitude when it comes to me and tools. When he was about ten he was surprised to learn that I knew how to use a screwdriver to remove and replace circuit boards in our server at work.

I could just imagine his pain. But you know, there are things that dads and brothers and sons just don't bother to teach their daughters and sisters and mothers, whereas they share knowledge with each other generously. It's as though we are not worth the bother, not worth the investment because we are not capable if learning that sort of thing.

I have found this in the workplace as well. The most notorious example that comes to mind is the DBA walking past me looking for "the guys" to go tell them that the database had gone down. I was working intensely on a large SQL job at the time, but it had not crossed his mind, although I was co-leading the data warehouse project, that he should share that news with me. I was utterly amazed. That was not 30 years ago, it was 2008.

Anyway, I am still learning, and yes, I learned new tricks. I know how to use cam bolts now. I had never seen those before. And the cabinet turned out great!