My Balancing Stick

I have hit a lag in my posting.  I appreciate all of you who have noticed.  Sometimes it is hard to know if it is being read.  Part of the reason for my lag is that I am running out of ideas.  I would love some feedback.  What would you like me to discuss?  I have had one request for migraines, so I will be thinking about that topic. Another reason for my lag is due to a consuming project that has been taking up almost all of my free time for the last six weeks.  In fact, it is the topic of this post.

The premise for "Simply Healthy" is just that, to keep health simple.  My four pillars are watching what goes in, to keep moving, maintaining balance and to ask your doctor about the rest.  I haven't touched too much on maintaining balance and will do so today.  As I talk to my patients and ask about their lives I have come to appreciate that we all have stress.  It comes in different forms.  It may be family related, work related, money related and often healthy related.  We all have times when it is worse than others.  How we manage it makes all of the difference.  Taking our mind off of the cause of our stress is essential.  Exercise is one of the best ways of doing that.  Another great way is to have a hobby or special interest.  Mine turns out to be wood carving.

As a young boy scout I was introduced to "whittling."  I loved using my pocket knife to make spears and arrows.  Making a chain out of a stick was more difficult but quite rewarding.  I never thought about doing more until about eight years ago when I decided to try and carve the nativity scene on a walking stick.  It was my first attempt to carve a human form.  I got hooked after that.  I started to find myself looking at arms and legs in a new way, paying extra attention to where the muscles came together and fit in with the body.  I would look at all the noses that came my way to try and decide which one I would use on my wise man.  At first, I used a simple exacto knife. I finally found a friend who also carved and he introduced my to "real" tools.  I started to collect not just knives but gouges, and bits to fit on my rotary tool and an electric chisel.  When I am working on a project my whole focus is centered on that piece of wood.  It is a great way to take my mind off of the stress of work.  I love the feel of the grain and get great satisfaction when a piece turns out well.

My recent project is for my wonderful parents.  They recently completed fifty years of marriage.  We have four children in our family.  Each of us are married and we all have four children. My oldest child married this April so that makes a total of 27 people in our family.  About a year ago I decided to carve something for my parents but couldn't come up with an idea.  One night I literally woke up with the idea for my project.  A verse in the fifteenth chapter of John came to mind where Jesus declares, "I am the vine and ye are the branches."  I envisioned creating a walking stick with vines wrapping up the stick, each leaf representing a member of our family.  I love working with cedar which has a red inner core.  I thought the stick would look great if I carved down to that red core and making the branches and leaves out of the outer white wood.  This symbolizes our family, tied together, centered on Jesus Christ.  With that in mind, I went out in the woods on my in-laws property and found a cedar tree that had been knocked over but was still alive.  I cut it down, sawed off the many branches and stripped the bark.  I let it sit in the basement for about six months prior to working on it.  I decided that I wanted each leaf to be centered on one of the knots in the wood, which would tie it to the red core.  I traced out my leaves and vines, counting over and over to make sure I had all twenty seven of them on the stick.  I would like to say the project then started in earnest but I didn't do much on it for many months after that.  I tend to work better when I have a deadline.  As the summer approached and the anniversary date started getting near I got more serious about the project.  At times in the beginning I nearly gave up on it, feeling it wasn't turning out as I had envisioned it but I kept at it, modifying the details as I went along.

I took it to every outside event that I went to, using the time at camp-outs, soccer games, and cross country meets to work on the project.  Several weekends ago, in its nearly completed stage, I took it to a scout retreat.  I was mostly sanding at this point.  Being around hundreds of scouts and leaders, many of whom had made walking sticks in the past, made me feel like a rock star.  I was pleased to see the response of those that wanted to see it and ask about how it was made.  The final task was the most rewarding of all.  After finally completing the many hours of sanding it down to a smooth sheen, I applied teak oil to the wood.  As I had hoped, it made the red core jump out of the wood, bringing out the grain and the knots.  I love how it turned out.

I know that this is not too "medical," but thought that many of you would enjoy seeing and hearing about my project.  It truly is a stress reliever.  We all need to have a stress relieving outlet besides the television set.  If you are feeling overwhelmed by life, pull out that old guitar, paint brushes, knitting sticks or whatever else it is that you love to do but may have put aside for awhile.  It is not just good for the mind, it is good for our health.