I love stacking wood. I truly do. I love everything about it. I love the physical fitness aspect of it. I am investing in my body at the same time that I am investing in heating my home for the winter. It feels much like shadow work to me. While it can feel like hard work, the payoff is intense and something that you and all of your loved ones benefit from.

As I carry pieces of wood and stack them neatly on each other,my mind wanders to cold mornings and sitting by the fire with coffee while writing. Despite the fact that I am carrying wood I feel like I am sitting on the couch already, it feels as real as my experience of carrying the wood. I know that on those cold mornings as I load the woodstove I will think back about carrying the wood and it will feel as real as loading the woodstove. There is something about experiencing things deeply that brings me immense joy. Feeling the feelings and embracing the sensation, being present in that moment, in that experience, in that thought, in this life.

I love the grounding aspect of stacking wood. My skin touches the rough bark and wood and it is almost as if my skin is absorbing the grounding that the tree embodied. I understand that some will find this an odd thought and I am alright with that, my truth doesn’t need to be yours. I feel that the tree offers shade and oxygen and support while it was living. As I carry the wood to stack it, it offers me insight, wisdom and grounding. Over the winter, it will offer me warmth, entertainment and love. When I spread the ashes from the woodstove onto my land it will offer nutrition and balancing. Embracing and appreciating all that the tree offers me deepens my connection with the tree, the earth, myself and the universe.