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Audiobook
First published September 25, 2018
In elementary school, my teacher took us outside and asked us all to find a tree. Once we found one, she said, that tree would be ours; we could adopt it as our very own. Although I was born in Atlanta, at that time I lived in Asheville, North Carolina, where beautiful trees were abundant. I was six years old and in the first grade. I found my tree and sat down at its base. My classmates and I just sat there by our trees, quietly getting acquainted with our tall new friends. For all I know, my teacher was at the end of her rope that day, and she came up with this activity as a way to just keep us quiet for a few minutes. I don't know her reasons and never will, but it doesn't matter. For me, the experience was magical. That tree was mine and I loved it. I scratched in the dirt at its base, and then dug a little deeper. I kept digging until I found a little rock. I lifted it from the ground and thought that maybe, just maybe, I was the only one to ever touch that rock -- it had come from the hand of its creator straight to mine, with no one in between. That day, my heart cracked open to life's mysterious possibilities.
Decades later, when I quit my job to pursue a passion to build furniture, in my mind I was once again sitting at the base of that tree. Hidden deep in my heart was an old wooden door, leading to a room full of dreams. For many reasons -- not the least of which were society's ideas about what it means to "grow up" and "get serious" and "be a good provider" -- I had closed that door years before. But now it had been flung open. I had walked back into a world where anything was possible. For you, that door might have opened onto a classroom, a farm, a playing field, a church sanctuary, a medical school, an auto repair shop, an art studio. For me, that door opened onto a woodshop -- my garage, to be exact. Inside that sweltering space was a universe bigger than any I'd ever imagined, one that I had discovered only because I'd found the courage to embrace the journey that had been calling to me for some time.