Because It Makes Me Happy
Every week I hear from more than one customer who is glad to be getting back into the shop and glad to be able to spend time at the lathe once again. Sometimes it’s just a busy schedule, sometimes it’s a health issue. Like the fellow from Australia who told me that he crushed his lower spine 4 years ago and is just now finally able to stand at the lathe for a while. Then there is a longtime customer who is battling cancer and the chemo is finally over. He is feeling well enough to spend some time in the shop he loves because it make him happy.
I think often about my friends and fellow craftsmen and craftswomen in Houston, South Florida Puerto Rico and about Avelino Samuel in the Caribbean island of St John. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were not kind to those areas and many lives were disrupted in dramatic ways. But they all have one thing in common, they are anxious to get back to their workshops because it makes them happy. If you follow Captain Eddy Castelin, he has told me how happy he is to be back in his shop again after a serious bout with cancer and tumors.
Folks ask me all the time what my favorite item to turn is. I don’t have one favorite, I have several. But what makes me happy is the activity of turning and I don’t really care too much what the item is. It’s like food, the kind of food doesn’t really matter too much because there are so many different kinds which are equally delicious and I appreciate a very wide variety.
I still vividly remember not being able to turn anything for about seven months. The Woodworking show season is all demanding and then I broke my leg and was glued to the couch for 3+ months. I really missed my shop. Sometimes when I got really desperate I would crawl out there and just sit on a bucket and stare. I enjoyed the smell and looked around at all of the workshop stuff just because it makes me happy.
My advice to you if you live a life of service to others is do what makes you happy once in a while. If you like to turn a simple pen, simple spinning top, a honey dipper, bottle stopper or a utility bowl out of ordinary wood, do that just because it makes you happy. That is why most of us enjoy turning wood, simply because it makes up happy. It isn’t politically correct, morally uplifting (or reprehensible) it’s not illegal at least yet. And anyone can do it regardless of political party or religious belief. It just makes us happy. I think we all have a vacuum that can only be filled by doing something creative just as we all have a giant hole that can only be filled by our creator. I’m very glad to be back at the lathe and back designing more jigs, fixtures and accessories for the turner because, second only to my time with Sweet Janice, it makes me happy. So remember that wherever you go, there you are.
Here is my inspiration for this message:
Prov 8:12 KJV I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
Isa 51:11 ESV2011 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Ps 37:3-4 ESV2011 Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
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