Watching the Clean Slice of the Logs Brings Me Joy

Once I took a ‘course’ in voluntary simplicity. It wasn’t really a course, more like a bunch of people who met once a week to talk about how to make life simpler and less stressful. At one point during a session, we all went around and talked about little things that give us joy, and are free. I cited the sheer joy I get when I remove the lint from the dryer, how it comes up in one big piece and how it feels so good to take it out. Or the way it feels when you turn on a vacuum cleaner with a new bag inside it. That super duper sucking is somehow satisfying.

Today I got some exercise that provided me with a similiarly joyous feeling. I helped Cindy and our friend Robbie cut up a huge stack of giant logs using a hydraulic wood splitter. We’d balance the tw0-foot wide round pieces on the machine and watch a blade push through them like butter. Time after time, that slicing never failed to entertain me, and even when the machine would fight against a knot, it would always prevail. It took us less than an hour to generate a monster pile of freshly sliced logs, ready to be stored like valuable nuts in the garage to warm the house all next winter.

I’ve said it before—but it’s worth repeating–appreciating and loving life’s simple joys is what makes this life worth living.