Firewood. I know it has to be done but I hate to see a tree cut down. Beautiful beings who aerate our planet, with whom we exchange breath, our very source of life. The utilitarian mindset of man since the early neolithic. We lost our ability to be acutely in tune and in touch with the world around us when we became settled and sedentary.
But I think there's an ebb and a flow to all this. I believe we've developed civilizations many a time, only to lose them again when they've outlived their purposes. As I used to tell one of my brothers-in-law, an avid hunter and fisherman, "Don't worry, Don -- in twenty thousand years we'll all be living in caves and tanning hides again."
In this video, even our host has fallen prey to speeding up his film! As though the tempered pace of labor was not a thing of beauty in itself. That's something you learn on a farm. Imagined short-cuts and rushing through a job usually lead to having to do it all over again, more carefully this time. He's momentarily forgotten that in a job well done, the reward is as much in the doing as in the finished product. The door looks lovely but I would have preferred to have seen this done in real time.
Fortunately, his eminently sane neighbor has saved the day and invited him in out of the rain and cold. Johannes has been there six years at this point, I believe, and has some valuable information to pass on. I love that they chat about simple, mundane things. But then we glimpse Johannes' little wooden chapel, which is absolutely gorgeous. The wood is luminous. Something in the iconography is hidden in the far reaches of my mind -- not from this lifetime, thankfully! I have enough personal baggage without having to carry an entire tradition on my back as well. I love having the freedom to fashion my own beliefs as I see fit.
His solar panels survived the autumn/winter winds. I wondered when he was setting them up how they'd fare once the wind began to blow. I'm happy to see our friend at the end of the video, ruminating on the inspiration of living in such a vivid natural setting. And so...
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