Thank you everyone for taking the time to wish us all a Merry and Happy Christmas! It was a delightful time of rest and recreation for me and catching up on things we save and savour for this unique break. I am grateful that at least two members of my family love to cook so we had some scrumptious meals flanked by sessions of storybook reading, kitten playing, and listening to music throughout the days. We experimented with coffee and chocolate, trying on new clothes and socks but the best bit was the warmth I felt from all that we worked through to make life happen last year.
And it is not over. The bit between Christmas and New Year reinforces the need and benefit of rest and recovery. Stress release is important to us all. Taking the foot off the pedal and the fingers off the mallet isn’t always easy for us all but I might suggest that walking will do you good whether you are in New York City or the rurals of France. My making in the physical is over until the New Year now. The bed is all but finished and starts the new year series. I didn’t plan that but it was perfect to finish 2022 with the dining room and start 2023 with the bedrooms upstairs. Neat, unscheduled and unplanned for.
Thank you all for your very encouraging words. Some of you have told me how your physical hearts are so much stronger from doing woodworking. I am no medical expert so I cannot say more than exercise is generally good for us. What I do love is words. Encourage is a wonderful word. Encourage comes from an old French word, ‘encoragier‘. What a wonderful thought that we might make our hearts strong enough in the face of an enemy to our wellbeing by simply working consistently with our hands, minds and hearts. Lifestyle woodworking works for me and has done so for close to six successive decades without fail. Wouldn’t have changed a thing!
