Past, present and future

Today was a better day. I finished off many things from last week’s total assault on my creative workspace and that work included staring at four walls to regain my composure. I sat on the bench for a while and talked to people who “wished” they’d become woodworkers. Consoling a man who, now in his sixties, just discovered he’d given his life to nothingness is not easy because he believed in the choices he made at different stages in his life to become ”educated” and “successful”. Anyway I tried to tell him it wasn’t too late and that I knew many people who took steps to make sure their lives were not totally wasted doing woodworking, blacksmithing or some other worthwhile and creative thing, but, well, he wasn’t altogether convinced. I said you should just make a spoon and he brightened up, I mean he brightened up a lot. We talked some more and he became visibly changed, he became happy and he left happy.
I think Phil left me to take few days break knowing that I had to have the shop to myself to think through my creative workspace. I wrote many blogs on this some months back because its critical to my wellbeing which is peace of mind. Some weeks back Joseph called me and said the shop was working out and that many changes had happened (while I was in the USA) he hoped would not be too disruptive. It really wasn’t, but it made me conscious that my creative workspace now includes many  more ‘others’ in it. Generally it’s true that no one else works at my bench, uses my tools or manages me. To get students in closer they switched me to a short, narrow bench and slid my other bench a few feet away. The bench I will be using for teaching is one I made few years ago and it’s one that works well for me too. Hard though it may be to understand, it will take me a week or two to micro-adjust everything to include the changes, but already I feel that sense of anticipation I feel when something big is about to happen.

Yesterday I spent the day in the world -famous Liverpool, which is an hour or so from my North Wales home. We spent time in the Walker Museum on Joseph’s recommendation and that was well worth the time. If your ancestors came from mainland Europe, Ireland, Scotland or Wales to settle in America, the chances are that they joined the many millions of migrants that sailed the long journey from Liverpool. Of course that’s now history, but it’s good history. For many it was a new beginning and a new life — a new-world transition from the old and one filled with opportunity and hope for a fresh openness.

Walking the streets of the city centre left me with a sadness and a gladness at the same time. Strange, but it made me realize that how we live and work, our creative workspace, is indeed a place of emotion, thought, carefulness and kindness and that if these ingredients are not part of it then it’s up to us to be the solution if we can to change it. It’s a year ago that my father died. It’s because of him, his guidance and help, that I became a lifelong woodworker and found my vocational calling. Few men and women I meet seem to enjoy what they do these days. It’s sad to see so many working in such non creative jobs. I have worked for myself or organizations that allowed me to do what I felt important to do. Fact is, had I not had a vision, I would not have been given that liberty because no one else could have had my personal vision. That may well be the same for you. If you have an idea and you just keep it to yourself, it will most likely stay right there and could end up doing nothing. But if you take a few steps to see what’s on the other side of that idea, then it will most likely reach far beyond you and into the lives of others. How about that! Just stop what you’re doing and think about it for a few minutes. What do you have that could improve the life of someone else? It doesn’t have to be something you hate the thought of. It could and would most likely be something you really love doing. We can all find a place to make a difference!