Beautiful Bench
Thank you Simon, Jet and Roger
A trip south of town to pick-up local cedar planks, trees ready milled to create with the help of carpenter friend Simon. A rough plan and an old school chair to copy angles of seat and back-rest, two afternoons at Jet’s boatyard workshop and this beauty is complete.
Sanding the raw-edge back panel was my favourite part, feeling the wood and following the grain, I was reminded of the mountains, how they follow lines rising to peaks, and the oceans waves meeting the forested shore. What a joy to work with wood, those flowing lines highlighting the beauty of the grain, the many layers of years of sustained growth, strength and beauty.
It’s a small deck and big view, so sitting here I remember Simon and Jet with gratitude, also a sense of pride in having made it myself, hiding away the clutter of gardening stuff needed to keep the planters and plants alive.
Mostly I’m grateful to be here in nature, overlooking the Salish Sea, next to the raven tree.
Peace can be found here, night and day, watching sun and clouds, the ebb and flow of tides, the moon travel through the starry night sky, changing light and seasons on the mountains across the way. Breakfast, coffee, lunch and dinner served here, a cocktail or few too, trips have been planned, wildlife observed, silent meditations, the symphony of frogs, the raven’s cry, the raven’s wings (woap woap woap), early morning calls of eagle, crickets soothing and watching plants bloom.
Three seeds planted themselves from neighbouring trees. One survived a year, then perished in the direct sunlight.
It’s so good to sit here. To be here. To witness.
Thank you for this magical view, for peace and for gratitude enjoyed daily.
Where the land meets the sea, and earth meets the sky, present to our glorious planet spinning in the vastness of space and the infinite universe.
Here we are… how lucky we are to be alive.
On reflection I recall a bench somewhere in the Berkshire woods in the UK, where ramblers go, there is dear mum’s name engraved on it, a memorial to her from her hiking friends… today I’ll remember you dear mum, thank you for your love, my freedom and this life.
From my beautiful bench… feeling lucky… and grateful… and at peace.
