Chop wood, carry water…

A good friend of mine sometimes refers to me as “Chop wood, carry water”, which makes me smile because I do like chopping wood and carrying water as well as appreciate the deeper sentiments behind those two simple, poetic lines:

Magical Power, Marvelous Action!
Chopping Wood, Carrying Water...

To me, it speaks of being present, involved in and appreciating the fine grain of living.  When I chop wood, it’s to bring that much loved, warm glow, to our hearth at home and these days when I’m carrying water, it’s to bring that life giving substance to our boat as we travel.  And, and, and it’s maintaining that circular love and awareness throughout my life; chopping with warmth and warmth in the chopping.  I love sitting in front of our wood stove napping, stretching, chatting with friends and especially enjoying a good book.  When I’m doing those things, I’m also in touch with the physical activity which made that beloved setting possible; the simple, repetitive, physical action of chopping of wood.    



A similar awareness of the balanced and symmetrical nature of things seems to be showing itself in my photography lately.  An awareness of circular and interconnected nature of life.  This is become a part of how I've been managing the figure & ground aspects of my images lately.  Previously I’ve been focused primarily on the subject (figure) and “managed” the background (ground), primarily to support the subject.  But something interesting has been happening lately.  The background has been "speaking up", rising it's hand, seeming to say; "Look, over here, I've got something to say too".  So I looked and saw that yes, the backgrounds do have something to say that can be as important at the subject.  



We’re still in beautiful Half Moon Bay and today we just finished fixing our starting system.  Three days ago we were all set leave on a journey of 300 miles south to California’s Channel Islands.  We had a good “weather window’ for the trip and had spent all the previous day prepping Malo for the voyage.  We were up before dawn, ready to go.  At first light Bev hit the engine starter to no good affect.  I went below to investigate and asked Bev to hit it again.  The only sound I heard was the dreaded “click” of a bad starter solenoid.  Bummer!  We immediately went into action testing wires and then pulling out the old starter/solenoid combo.  We rented a car and traveled into to San Francisco to drop our parts off at a reputable starter/alternator shop.  They had located a new one the next morning and we made another hair raising run into SF and back, stopping along the way to pick up a few other tools and parts for the Malo.  Then we spent half of today installing the beast.  

Engine work on a boat is often not easy and this was certainly one of those non easy times.  Non-the-less, with the each other's help, often working blindly, at arms length with the one verbally guiding the other, we got-er done.  That job, was a bitch but the engine never sounded sweeter once we were done and she fired right up.   



So maybe this was a break down (in paradise) and we did miss a good weather window south but I think we also gained some other richness that we will carry with us forward as we go…