“You can’t saw sawdust.”
Living gratefully today, I appreciate the need for a sweatshirt this morning. My favorite season is around the corner. I also give thanks for the physical and emotional health I feel.
Yesterday my husband Darcy and I spent part of our afternoon cleaning up some fallen branches and then burning them in our fire pit. Two sizable branches had come down in recent weeks, and we are thankful they didn’t do any damage on their way down. We could break, snap, and clip some of the smaller branches, but we also needed to get our saw out for some of the larger pieces. It’s a task I don’t mind, especially when I can see progress and another portion comes off. Sawdust gathered on the grass and my shoes.
Inevitably, sawdust brings to mind one of my favorite sayings: “You can’t saw sawdust.” I heard it from my recovery friend Jim over thirty years ago. I smile as I remember Jim and also the wisdom in this catchy little phrase. I revisited my previous blog, Habitual Gratitude, knowing I would find at least a few mentions of it. Here are two:
I have used a number of Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes in this blog. I would apologize for using another one, but there's nothing to apologize for. He had a way with words that is timeless.
So here's another:
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could, some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
You can't saw sawdust. What's done is done. Nobody's perfect and most days aren't either. And that is just the way it is meant to be. Life can be messy. Take some risks and live life fully. Blunders and absurdities will be part of the scenery. But so will grace and beauty and love. Celebrate it all.
Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Apply ample patience and acceptance.
The new day mentioned above is now here.
What will you do with it?
In my early sobriety, I knew a wise guy, wise in humor and in wisdom, who liked to say "You can't saw sawdust." I never forgot that. What's done is done. Let it go. Move forward. Forgive self and others. Embrace imperfection.
Some of life’s challenges snap off and break away easily. Others need time and effort, and a saw. When we get to the little, or big, pile of sawdust, our part is done. Let go and move forward. The limb or log may have been carried for decades, years, months, weeks, or hours. Regardless, it is time to unburden. Let go. Release. Forgive.
The toughest person for me to forgive is myself. It takes concerted effort and real action, just like sawing a log does. Some light sawdust, and later smoke and ash, tell me I did my part. I walk away lighter.
