Woodworking Mindfulness

Cherry Library With Desk

Returning to the topic of mindfulness for a post, the picture above shows a cherry library I built in our home in 2006. I have a strong passion for woodworking and will in the near future "retire" from engineering to a career in woodworking.

No two woodworking projects are the same because wood, as a product of nature, never repeats the same fine level characteristics from piece to piece. Yes, wood as a whole has repeatable characteristics for which man produced a plethora of tools designed specifically to create wood products. But for me to create a product from wood, I must be wholly mindful that this piece of wood, in my hand at this moment, tells a story about its grain direction and hardness, its suitability to purpose, and most importantly, how it can be best displayed in a product to accentuate its inherent beauty. 

Mindfulness in woodworking though, goes beyond the task of being present in mind about the wood itself while designing and creating a wood product. An extra level of mindfulness arises from applying tools to wood because virtually all woodworking tools can injure a mindless operator. From the throbbing thumb of misplacing a hammer blow, to the potential to loose that thumb to a tablesaw, mindless woodworkers risk debilitating injuries with virtually every project.

In a way though, I think my strong attraction to woodworking arises from the  mindfulness required to create and build wood products. For example, I always approach the table saw with both terror and respect which induces an intense focus on how to accomplish this cut at this moment in the safest manner possible. I find fulfillment in those times I intensely focus in safely performing the task at hand.

As a computer engineer I must also become absorbed in the task of the moment, but the risk of danger to myself is missing and I produce a program on a computer screen that tests a product I can't easily see. The work challenges me mentally and eventually I may see the resulting computer chip, but for me, beholding a minuscule piece of silicon doesn't produce the same level of joy engendered when I behold the warmth and beauty of a table or box or bowl I created from a piece or pile of wood.