It was at Easter this year that I hit the buffers.\u00a0 Breakdown, burnout, work-related stress \u2026 it all amounts to the same.\u00a0 I started breaking down in tears at work and continued to do so for the initial few weeks of my resulting sixteen weeks sick leave, until I could feel the stress and the emotions dissipating.<\/p>\n
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During this time, three ideas, three threads, came together.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For several years, I have said that when I retire, I would like to do a boatbuilding course at the IBTC (International Boatbuilding Training College) in Portsmouth\u2019s Historic Dockyard. \u00a0\u00a0One morning, I looked on the IBTC website, and saw that they had an Open Day coming up.\u00a0 I booked a place, keen to see if the course was really what I had hoped it would be.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My Father was a mechanical engineer, then CDT teacher.\u00a0 Metalwork, woodwork, blacksmithing \u2026 he did it all, and he amassed a large collection of tools and machines.\u00a0 When he died in 2015, I inherited this collection.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think I would get into metalworking, so I gave his metal lathe and other such items to The Gosport Shed, but I had a workshop built in our garden, to house my tools and bench, and my Dad\u2019s wood lathe, and his many other tools and machines.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For some time now, I have been yearning to use these tools, and to make things in wood.\u00a0Although I have started to do some woodturning, it has been hard to find the time to do this, what with the hours I have been working.\u00a0 I resigned myself to the idea that I would have to wait until I have more time in retirement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During those early weeks of sick leave, I sought advice, support and comfort from my family, and from close and trusted colleagues. One of my younger Partners \u2013 well, they\u2019re almost all younger than me \u2013 suggested a book on Mindfulness: \u201cFinding Peace in a Frantic World.\u00a0 Knowing my fondness for poetry, she also recommended an anthology of poetry: \u201cThe Poetry of Presence.\u201d\u00a0 I ordered them both, and the latter volume arrived on the eve of my visit to the Open Day at the IBTC.\u00a0 That evening, as I let the book fall open at a random page, I came across a poem, written by Judy Sorum Brown, an American lady, who does leadership consultancy work.\u00a0Here it is:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wooden Boats<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have a brother who builds wooden boats,
\nWho knows precisely how a board
\nCan bend or turn, steamed just exactly
\nSoft enough so he, with help of friends,
\nCan shape it to the hull.<\/p>\n
The knowledge lies as much
\nWithin his sure hands on the plane
\nAs in his head;
\nIt lies in love of wood and grain,
\nA rough hand resting on the satin
\nOf the finished deck.<\/p>\n
Is there within us each
\nSuch artistry forgotten
\nIn the cruder tasks
\nThe world requires of us,
\nThe faster modern work
\nThat we have
\nTurned our life to do?<\/p>\n
Could we return to more of craft
\nWithin our lives,
\nAnd feel the way the grain of wood runs true,
\nBy letting our hands linger
\nOn the product of our artistry?
\nCould we recall what we have known
\nBut have forgotten,
\nThe gifts within ourselves,
\nEach other too,
\nAnd thus transform a world
\nAs he and friends do,
\nShaping steaming oak boards
\nUpon the hulls of wooden boats?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As I read this poem, on the eve of my visit to the IBTC, it felt like something of an omen. \u00a0It resonated with all that I envisaged in the art and skill of boatbuilding.\u00a0 \u00a0Needless to say, I enjoyed the open day immensely, certain that here I would be a round peg in a round hole, happy and fulfilled again, but in a new way: by learning and applying newly-acquired skills; by the satisfaction of crafting something beautiful and functional with my hands, using age old techniques and simple tools \u2013 Dad\u2019s tools.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Somehow, these three threads came together that evening: my ambition to work with boats, which I have always loved; my desire to make use of my Father\u2019s tools; and my desire to craft things out of wood.\u00a0 They came together with a poem so timely to my situation, and so resonant with my need, that its discovery seems more than just coincidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was at Easter this year that I hit the buffers.\u00a0 Breakdown, burnout, work-related stress \u2026 it all amounts to the same.\u00a0 I started breaking down in tears at work and continued to do so for the initial few weeks of my resulting sixteen weeks sick leave, until I could feel the stress and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}