“Exploring life through fiction, together.”

Recently, I’ve tried out blacksmithing. A friend and I ordered everything off the internet. Once I got over the fear of the forge exploding, we had a great time. Our goal was to make 50 metal leaves each. So the world shrunk to the forge and the anvil. The rhythm shifted to the heating time of iron. And my muscles burnt each evening.

Fiction Bite - His last commission

She raked yesterday's coals. Their dust still embedded around her eyes. She stretched as the forge heated. She sang the fire song her grandfather taught her. She drank coffee.

Once the heaped coals glowed within, she pushed in the first length of iron. More coffee. She pulled the brilliant yellow lump out and laid it on her grandfather’s anvil. Her hammer pounded, smashing away at the hot metal and the weary thoughts. Grief fell like scale with each hammer blow. The iron yielded and bent. Soon an ornate cross lay cooling. He’d always said the business would be hers one day. But this one thing, this was still his.

Quote of the Week

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”   ― Alan Watts 

Book of the month

The Circuit by Francisco Jiménez (or read the Spanish version, also translated by Jiménez)

Final Words

It was engrossing. When the iron was hot, you had to strike. If you waited, if you over thought, the glow would fade, orange, through cherry red, and too soon back to black. Then we had to wait while it warmed. We found a rhythm, planning while warming, actioning while hot. The hours melted away. It'd been a long time since I’d found such sustained flow. So much of my life is built around small segments it’s almost impossible to sustain anything for more than half an hour. And it’s got me thinking. Sure, I have constraints, but how can I arrange my day for more enthrallment? Not in the entertainment sense, but for getting-lost in the work. And once I arrange the time, what rhythms can I build to encourage flow?

What do you think?

With Love,

Josiah



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