Carving

OCTOBER 1, 2017

**I spent this past Saturday**
**in a circle of redwoods with a circle of women**
**learning how to carve.**

**The class was titled:**
**Wood and Knife and Hands**

**It was truly a wonderful day, taught by [Stargazer Li](https://stargazerli.com/).**

**Carving is a meditative practice.**
**You have to be fully present, in your body and aware of your hands at all times.**
**For carving hard wood with these special knives**
**requires all of your senses and being in the moment.**

**It was humbling to begin to learn this skill**
**that for thousands upon thousands of years was elemental for life and survival**
**as well as means for creating beautiful things.**

**Stories were told. Memories were stirred.**
**And fundamental realizations of how these skills of honoring, giving thanks,**
**focusing awareness and working with our knives,**
**our wood and our hands could teach us everything you need to know**
**about living a connected life.**

**There was a deep sense of tapping into the lineage of people**
**who came before us who would spend a day just like we did,**
**in conversation and creation, soaking up the beauty of a Fall day.**
**I wondered about how the shift from carving**
**with stone and flint to this metal forged in flame,**
**must have radically changed the world.**
**And how, in a way, that paradigm shift was but a stepping stone**
**to where we find ourselves now**
**in this age of instantaneous gratification and mechanization**
**and loss of human skills.**
**For it is a whole new experience to slow down**
**and whittle away at a block of wood with a metal knife**
**to make a wooden knife, that is unique and unlike any other.**

\*\*\*\*\*

**Metal in my hand**
**slow movements, steady and sure**
**beauty emerges**