log 8: a trip to the woods
getaway
What a wonderful trip. There really is no way to describe the peace I felt while sitting in front of a fire that I made with my own hands. This past week I got away from the city with Getaway House. I saw ads for it long ago and it's been on my mind ever since. The idea of glamping —where you only have to worry about the fun parts of camping — was spectacular. There wasn’t much camping growing up in a hectic country like Singapore. Recently, I’ve been watching and reading a lot about productivity so that I can create a better and more efficient work-life balance for myself. One of the really interesting things I came across was how overstimulation is ruining creativity and innovation. So, I figured it would be a cool chance to take a mini vacation to just sit and wonder. After finishing a few minor tasks I was free for the whole day. No gym to go to, nobody to chat with, and no distractions. I felt like a true forest man. Which really hit me when I realized I was sawing a dead tree to carve a spatula. I carved and whittled for a total of 8 hours and I felt nothing short of a builder. During this time I learned two lessons, one from the silly spatula and one from keeping the fire going.
lesson of the silly spatula
It took me two tries to get to a product that I was decently happy with. What happened to the first attempt? It became Lilo’s new toy. The more I worked on it, trying to get the perfect shape, the more I messed it up. I would try and take off a little and somehow my knife would catch a massive edge, taking off a big chunk. A perfect start to a nice and wide-tipped spatula turned skinny. Good thing I cut two chunks off the tree. The plan the second time around was to get a basic shape with the hatchet, then use my whittling knife to slowly carve off the rough edges. It came out better, but I hit the same problem. In my effort to make it better, I actually made it worse. Just like the stride for perfection. The more you carve, the farther away you get.
lesson of fire
To build a fire I had to chop wood into little and medium sizes sticks from the big wood logs I was provided. You needed all three sizes, small, medium, and large. First, the little ones would burn, then the medium ones, and the logs after that. Just like … starting a habit? Regardless, what I think is far more interesting is how the lifecycle of the flame is cyclic. You add one log and it goes up into a great big flame. After a while, it dies down. Maybe it even goes out. The only way you can get it back is to agitate it a little or add some more wood. If you don’t add anything it'll still be hot, but it won’t build up anymore. You also can’t skip any steps. If you want a big ginormous fire, you cant skip the smaller pieces or pile everything on at once. It won’t start. Just like… life? Every once in a while you have to have a lot, then you add a little something new, and a bigger and better flame will be brought to life. There are probably thousands of lessons from the will of fire so everyone will probably see something different.
