This is my first attempt at trying to share my tho...

2008-07-09T10:48:00.000-04:00

This is my first attempt at trying to share my thought via a blog. Heck, I’m not even sure I know what a blog is. It sounds like something from a horror movie. You know something like “Return of the Blog!” Any how, here goes. I was intrigued by deAnn’s blog on creativity (being a creative person myself). I love old wood. Love may be a strong word for old woods appeal. Let’s just say I have a passionate attraction for old wood. I like to take old wood that some may consider useless and create something from it. To me old wood has a character, a charm, a personality that new wood has not yet developed. The nicks, the nail holes, the marks and stains from years of use make its appeal irresistible. Recently I was at my brother-in-laws house collecting some wood he wanted to throw away. Some of it was an old tongue and groove garage door he had replaced. My wife received a phone call from our daughter and I heard her say, “We’re over at your uncle’s house, getting wood. You know how you dad is with old wood, he just can’t see it go to waste”.
I live in an old home and several years ago I needed to replace the roof over the rear section. Because of additions over the years the roof was in three sections. One section over what we call the “back room”, one section over the porch and one section over the patio. I decided to replace the whole thing with one roof. No, I didn’t use old wood. I purchased all new materials for the new roof. But, when I tore down the old roof, I did find several old pine boards 12 inches wide and 16 feet long. To me this was like finding hidden treasure. There must be some use for this incredible find. And sure enough there was. Having completed the roof project, I decided I was going to build a bar area on the back porch. I used two of the old porch posts and some old skid wood I collected from my place of employment to build most of it. For the countertop I glued some of those beautiful pine boards together and finished them with spar polyurethane which brought out the deeper beauty of its years of use. That old wood continues to give us pleasure as we use in a place where we now spend most of our leisure summer hours. We eat breakfast and dinner on that old wood every day we can in the warmer seasons. And use it in entertaining friends and family on occasion. I have used so much discarded wood to make things that a friend of mine calls my fence (which I made from discarded skid wood) “Skid Row”.
As I am reflecting on the use of old wood, it occurs to me that our society and even our churches have discarded a lot of “old wood” as useless and ugly. I’m talking about our seniors. They may have been pillars of our community or just another plank in the building of society, but in them is years of service, the mars and nicks of the tears, pains and joys of life. There is a deep inner beauty that can be seen by one who pauses long enough to see it.
Is there a piece of “Old Wood” in your world waiting for you to enjoy its hidden beauty?

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This is my first attempt at trying to share my tho...