An Exercise in Meditation

It is often said that swimming is the best exercise. Yes, it's good, and to that I would add a personal favorite: playing in big waves. That said I submit as the premier exercise for those reasonably fit: cutting fire wood.

The woods in which I cut are crowded second growth hardwoods about 70 to 80 years old. I have live here for over 45 years and the prettiest forests are the ones I cut in all those years ago. I have always thinned for variety and firmness.....but that's not the point.

When cutting wood on a rocky Ozark hillside one must practice absolute attention. A chain saw is as dangerous as a loaded gun, and boulders and fallen branches are everywhere. In felling one must read the tree and read the woods: where does the tree want to go.....can you nudge it where you want it....will it hang up in in being felled. Trimming the branches and limbs there is spring-back to watch for, and pant-legs and boots to avoid tangleing.  When sectioning into firewood there is a danger of pinching the blade in the cut or clipping a rock. One split second clip of a rock is a half an hour sharpening a blade. You can't drift off for a split second or you will get hurt....perhaps badly. Wood cutting is for me an extreme meditation: no thought, absolute attention, the tree leads the way and one silently follows. Always aware of the blade. Aways aware of ones footing. Always aware of the tree.

Then there is splitting the rounds. A well-placed blow of the splitting maul on a 18 inch oak round will split the log with a sound that is like nothing else. It is a sound that after all these years still gives me an indescribable pleasure. The dull thud of the off center strike also sticks with one. And again it is the thud of the off strike that tells one that one has drifted off, lost ones concentration. Bending....lifting....throwing....bending.....lifting....throwing. Loading and unloading the truck a rhythm emerges that sets its own pace, and the forest floor is an obstacle course of worthy tenor.

Every phase of the process requires absolute attention and each phase makes its separate demands on the various muscle groups. Yes, it is an exercise and a meditation most excellent.

And....
It's getting chilly in here.....time to load the stove.