I was up for a visit to the small town I used to live in and for a couple of days worked on building a portion of fencing. I drove up there with some lumber that had been milled by the owner of the ranch I’m living on;  beautiful wan 8-12 inch boards of Larch, which I’d trimmed to approx 8 foot lengths. I lashed on quite a load on my med-sized truck and headed north. I was bit bit worried going through Rattlesnake Canyon and up the Lewiston hill but everything stayed in place. On the way I encountered about a dozen or so empty log trucks heading South, presumably from the big Potlatch facility in Lewiston. I was carrying lumber too. In my mind I was part of the brotherhood of people who carry lumber in trucks.

That I was carrying about 40 boards compared to 50-70 whole trees was not the important thing, so I gave what I decided to make the “universal three-fingered wave” from the steering wheel hand to the bigger (20x), trucks passing by in the opposite direction. They were going too fast for me to see them wave back. I’m sure they did. After all, Brotherhood!

The potion of fence I built won’t, probably, show up on any builder sites as a how-to example, but it should stand up for about 8-10 years, barring someone leaning on it. So, a useful thing to do and I learned a lot. It’s good to have a plan. Write it out. Follow it. Step by step.

Next time, I will. For sure.

Today, I was back home and went to our little temple for meditation and a Dharma talk/discussion, and something occurred to me during the discussion. It was this.

The power and force that is generated by a half-dozen or so good hearted people, coming together to seek, ask, discuss and ponder issues and meanings concerning the daily living of this life we a part of, is quite remarkable and it is not an unusual event. Every day throughout the world people gather in various ways and try to approach the bigger questions. We move wood in opposite directions by a variety of conveyance for a variety of purposes. Those logs that went to the mill will provide a living and sustenance for lots of people in lots of ways. My little load kept me active for a couple of days.

Every body has to be somewhere, and everybody has to be doing something.

That can also mean doing nothing, leaving things be.

Everything appears to move through time and space.

As a human being what can I bring to this,

This moving of my body and mind through time and space?

In the discussion today it came to me that all

I can bring is an old coot and his body and

Remaining portion of mind to the intention of

Leaving less of a mess behind. 

That’s not noble, only practical. The

Question of how, is where serious discussion

Begins. I’ll start fresh tomorrow. I have a plan.

I’ll write it out. Follow it. Step by step. As best

I can.