I’ve never met anyone like Maria, making life up here very interesting. To her, stacking firewood for the winter is like going to Starbucks for a cup of coffee or binding on Netflix for other people.

When she wants to relax, do some healing, and do some creative thinking, she heads out to the woodshed for some wood stacking. She goes for an hour or two and comes in looking refreshed and content.

Today, she yelled for me to come out and see what she had done; she said she had made a significant discovery about stacking wood that would make it easier and even more fun than it already is.

It had to do with corners. She always built elaborate intersections on the piles to keep them from toppling over once we started using them. Now, she announced with great pride; she stacks them horizontally, no more corners, no more falling when the wood is brought into the house.

I’m sure I didn’t explain this well, partly because I don’t think I understood what she was saying.

She was very proud of herself, and so I was I.

I’ll figure it out eventually and I can see what she means.

But I did love her pride and creativity. Even wood stacking is an art and a chance to be creative.

I understood that and again gave thanks for her presence in my life, as I do just about every day.

I can’t imagine having that conversation with anyone in my life before her. Life on Bedlam Farm is never static or dull.