If I were a carpenter

There is really nothing in the world like carpentry. I mean putting boards together with nails to make structures. I use this as a metaphor for songwriting all the time, but right now I really just mean carpentry in the true sense of the word. Lumber, nails, and a plan, at least a vague one. You just start putting those things together, and you instantly feel great.

I've been building a bicycle shed as an annex to my back deck. A simple structure but I insisted on making it slightly Zen, sizing up the space really carefully, and modifying the approach as I went along to make it sit just right in the tiny landscape of my backyard. So now, as it nears completion, it's more than a rudimentary lean-to shelter. It's a work of craft, built in response to a basic need. But as it grows, and I interact with it, and it forms a relationship with the space around it... it somehow becomes a thing of beauty.

I really should spend more time building sheds.