I love kindergarten. Why? Because sticking your fingers in paint is fun! Learning through play refreshes me in a state of joy. It opens up my creativity and sense of discovery.

With that in mind, I placed the camera on the ledge of the deck to capture some of what else brings me joy that is always close at hand, which is my back yard.

There are only a couple of scenes, and the birds were shy about being seen on camera. But, they weren’t shy about being heard. If you listen closely in the first segment, you’ll even hear a woodpecker.

I hope you enjoy this little three minute video visit to my neck of the woods, literally. I sure had fun making it.

Click the BirdTweets Video link. I apologize for the upload time. I’m still figuring that part out

I had extended time off during December and hoped to do the bulk of the project then, But, due to a shoulder injury, had to wait until the middle of January to start. The carving only takes about two or three weeks, but it takes another week to finish it with several coats of oil and then the final coat of lacquer.

However, documenting the project with photographs and captions really slows everything down. Needless to say, I was working as much as I could every day to complete it on time.

This past week I’ve been applying the oil. It only takes about ten minutes and then I have to wait a day before applying the next coat. The wood usually takes about four coats to become saturated.

To my dismay, the last coat showed signs of bubbling. As I began working with it, I found that most all of the coats had not fully penetrated the wood and were standing on the surface. Because I can’t sand the piece, I tried to dissolve it with a bath in light mineral spirits. That removed the oil in a splotchy manner and bowed the carving on one side. It’s toast.

The problem was putting old oil on a new project. I’ve found that to be an appropriate life lesson. The Shift we are experiencing requires us to let go of old ways that no longer serve, no matter how well they may have served us in the past. When we refuse to adapt and force the issue, an entire project can fail. That failure can affect others in a less than pleasant way as well.

I’ve already contacted the magazine editor. Since the entire carving project has already been documented, all they lack is the final photograph. So, while the carving itself is beyond repair, the project can be salvaged by creating another carving. This one will go much quicker because I won’t have to stop to take pictures along the way.

And, yes, I got new oil. I learned my lesson and am applying it for the good of all involved.

That was the lead story on NBC’s coverage of the Olympic opening ceremonies, as it should be. What should not have been aired was the video of the crash that killed Kumaritashvilli. Before showing the clip, the announcer gave a warning that it might be difficult for some viewers to watch. Some? Shouldn’t it be difficult for anyone to see a man be killed?

This was not a movie. After the dramatic scene, the director did not yell, “Cut.” The stuntman did not get up and receive a pat on the back for a job well done and then go home.

The opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics are always shown to a general audience during prime time. What does showing this clip say about the network’s opinion of its viewership? What does it mean for Internet sites, many of which are affiliate ad driven, to endlessly run the clip?

Don’t be so quick to judge the network or the Internet. If we (the public) didn’t buy it, they (the media) wouldn’t show it.

In my opinion, the network and the Web sites that show this clip are in poor taste. The fact that the public can’t get enough of watching it horrifies me.

For all the great advances Rome brought to civilization, the mob still enjoyed watching gladiators be killed in the arena. Have we not progressed any since then?

The massive trees from which pink and red ivory come are extraordinarily slow growing, meaning that they have very tight growth rings. The wood is so dense that it is nearly as hard as a rock.

The trees are protected by the local governments because they are so rare. Special permission must be obtained to purchase and transport the wood, which cannot be removed from the country as a whole log. But, before any wood removal can be done, permission must also be sought from a higher authority.

The trees are primarily located in Zulu country where they are considered sacred. The bark from them is used for medicinal purposes as well.

Brad Sells is a spiritual man. He didn’t go to Africa simply in search of trees. He looked forward to interacting with the people who had tree knowings. When told that he would have to consult with a revered tribe elder and shaman, Brad was honored to be in the presence of wisdom that had been passed down through generations of a people still intimately connected with their natural surroundings.

Credo “Baba” Mutwa is the most venerated Zulu Sanusi in the country and whose permission had to be given for Brad to remove any wood from the area. When asked which tree Brad had in mind, he said that it was one that already showed signs of dying, to which Mutwa replied:

“When is a tree dead? Because we, who grow up amongst trees know that even a dead tree is alive. So, it’s just a funny question, when is a tree dead? Some trees become more alive when dead than when they were alive.”

The spiritual implications of those words ring in my mind every time I sit down to carve. I’m carving trees from trees.

I can also look at the fallen limbs and branches in the woods behind my house and see that they have become food for the ground as well as for a multitude of crawly things. Plus, they serve as shelter and hiding places for small furry creatures. I see twigs of those fallen trees scattered among the other trees in the form of bird’s nests that will house another generation of winged things for a time.

So, when is a tree dead?

I have no plans to remove a piece of pink ivory wood from Africa. But I would like to take a safari; a spiritual one to sit at the feet of Sanusi Mutwa for a while and see what else I can learn.

My carving studio is located in a spare room. And before I begin a session, I slip on my carving clothes. In the winter, which is when I do most of my carvings, that consists of an old flannel night shirt that buttons up the front, making it easy to take on and off without having to pull it over my head, releasing wood shavings in my hair. It hangs down almost to my knees, which adequately covers my lap area when I sit, like an apron. And, it has three-quarter length sleeves, ensuring that they don’t cover up or get caught in my work area. I also wear a pair of old sweatpants and a worn pair of house shoes, since the floor in my carving room is wood, and therefore cold to the touch. When my feet are warm, I’m warm.

Carving usually doesn’t produce much saw dust. My carving table as well as the surrounding floor are mainly filled with slivers and shavings. I leave my carving clothes in the room when I’m done and redress in another room. It’s almost like dressing for the shop and then changing into house clothes when I’m done.

I suppose this habit of changing my clothes also helps me re-frame my mindset before I begin carving. That’s very important. Most of my tree carvings take between one to three months to complete. It’s critical that I bring the same steady, calm, and serene mindset to the project each time I sit down with tool in hand.

Consider the fact that all of my carving tools are razor sharp. It’s not a good idea to carve when my mind is distracted by an upsetting situation or when I’m tired.

But perhaps the most important reason for maintaining the same mindset each time I sit down to carve is that how I feel gets locked into the wood of the piece in some manner. If I’m feeling particularly energetic, I have to be careful not to cut too deep too fast or make too many quick, short strokes.  It will all show in the piece.

I’ve made a few carvings for gifts to folks who are special to me. While I was carving, I held a vibe of the love and gratitude I feel for them. That gets locked into the wood too. In fact, those are the carvings viewers like to touch the most. They just can’t keep their hands off of them. It strikes a resonant chord with the viewer in more ways than one. It gives me a lot of delight to see folks so engaged with the art.

Everyday I look forward to dressing for the shop and evoking the discipline that’s necessary to create the art.

While there are huge organizations that raise great quantities of money to help hundreds of thousands of people in need, these Heroes focus on one passion that allows them to help hundreds of people with a specific need. Many times they are doing it with their own money and with little support. They just see a need and do whatever they can to meet it, day in, day out.

Unlike the bigger institutions, they meet each person they help. And, that’s the key. All throughout the year I see motivational quotations where folks espouse the good that adopting an attitude of gratitude produces. And, while that’s true, the focus is usually on helping one’s self by doing so. These Heroes who aid one person at a time, who know the names of the people they are helping, and who look these folks in the eye each day is the recipient of gratitude at a level that most of us will never know. It is one of the waves of energy that sustains them.

Gratitude is a necessary part of the loop in the process. While many are tempted to wax poetic and romanticize such dedication, it all boils down to a LOT of work that someone is willing to do because they care. And, the expressed gratitude from the folks the Hero is aiding may be the only visible exchange of energy that anyone can point to and say, “This is why I do it.”

The other part of the Hero’s story that fascinates me is how they came to care about what they’ve dedicated their lives to doing. Some just see a need and decide to meet it. Others suffer great personal tragedy or harm, and in healing themselves of it, reach out to others that have experienced similar circumstances.

It’s the wounded healer that grabs my attention most. For several years, the hottest selling books in the U.S. have been in the self-help genre. We have been obsessed with improving ourselves.

For me, there is an imaginary line. Below it is a state of being I call “in need of healing.” Above it is a state of being I call “happy, healthy, whole, and growing.” I, like most everyone, spend different times of my life on both sides of that line. I hope that I can spend more time on the topside, living and acting in accordance with knowing that I am whole and all my needs are met.

I’m wondering when this cultural trend of gazing in the mirror to improve ourselves will transition into more folks living in the space above and helping more and more others into that state of being. When will we come to a time of less focus on the individual and more focus on the community? The Heroes that CNN honors every year didn’t wait until they became perfect people before they started acting.

So, this year, I hope to continue to play a part in this great Shift we are in by helping more folks cross the line into well and whole and staying in that state of being so they can help even more do the same. Perhaps, when enough are participating, we will also transition our culture from healers to teachers and really grow into a new way of being.

It’s titled In the Trees by the Creek. The clip you’ll hear actually starts in the middle of the piece with guitar and English Horn being the main instruments. The fist part of the clip has piano and cello carrying the tune. By the end of the audio clip, you’ll hear all of them come back together.

And yes, I played everything you hear.

This song is part of a CD collection that I was planning to release just before I began writing the final draft for The Sage Age. But, due to financial and time constraints, I just couldn’t do both and do either of them well. So, the music project went on the back burner. I hope to revisit it later this year. In the meantime, I’ll be posting other finished projects that I’m re-releasing as well as demo clips from the CD project.

Actually, I’ve had an iPod for some time. In fact, I have two of them. I work for a Japanese company and they love giving gadgets. All employees received an iPod Shuffle in their holiday stocking back when they first came out. That was, what, four years ago? It’s still in the original package. It’s not that I didn’t want to play with it, I just didn’t have the time. I was too busy playing with my other woodcarving toys, including a scroll saw I had just acquired from an old man that was finally selling all of his woodworking tools due to arthritis. Had a great time visiting with him too. (I LOVE old men. They’ve either seen and done it all or they make up the best stories about it.)

A couple of years ago the company gave us new iPods that had screens and everything. Nearly a year passed before I took it out of the box. I know y’all think that’s crazy, but I was busy writing nine books. I finally did take it out and only wanted to upload a few podcast files I had on my computer so I could listen to them on the road.

What a convoluted mess that turned into. After two hours of trying to figure out how to work the !#&*% thing and then delete all the files it imported that I didn’t want on there, I finally got it going. But that whole wheel thing and file system makes me crazy.

Okay, alright already, I admit it. I’m a PC. Actually, my brain got trained that way well before PCs hit the consumer market.  I cut my electronic engineering teeth working on mainframes. So, when I sit in front of anything that remotely resembles a Mac, I just go “blink, blink” and freeze into a confounded stupor.  I’ve yet to find any logic to it.

So, today I purchased a Sony mp3 player. The file system is drag-and-drop, and it has just a few buttons to navigate the screen, all of which make total sense to me. In less than ten minutes I was loaded and running, including testing it on my car stereo.

Since the mid 90s I’ve had a company cell phone. For the past few years that’s been a BlackBerry. Unlike their stocking stuffers, the company doesn’t get us the latest whiz-bang phones. The upgraded model they got us last year was the first one to have a camera in it. And, since it’s a work phone, I don’t use it to update my Facebook or Twitter accounts, which is why you rarely see me post pics. What I want to know is, do they have an app for missing out on the cool toys? I just can’t see paying for service, so that will have to wait.

So, I’m giving away two iPods this holiday. Thought about doing the Angel Tree thing with them, but then remembered that you have to have a computer too, so that’s probably not the best idea. Any suggestions?