Usually this time of year, we try to take a little road trip somewhere to enjoy the fall foliage, even if it's just for a few days.
(tunnel in the Smoky Mountains, vacation 2011)
October is my very favorite month! In fact, our wedding anniversary is coming up in just a few days.
It was a perfect fall day...seems just a short time ago, too :)
(Fall in the Smokies, vacation 2008)
(Branson, MO 2010)
(Branson, MO 2010)
This year we're staying in town and using vacation days to do some work on the house. And that's ok. It feels right. Putting time & effort into the home we're blessed to have feels good and productive. But that doesn't mean I'm not taking pictures! I looked at hubby's electric saw & thought, "there's art in that..." The shape, the shininess, the simplicity, the power to create.
But when I started to post just this picture, I wondered what profound paragraph could go with it. Would you believe, a Google search turned up an analogy called "Sharpen the Saw"?
There must be different origins of this metaphor and different ways of telling the story. One goes like this: Two men are in a contest, racing to cut wood. One man relies on his sheer strength & will to just keep at it, sawing and sawing and sawing. The other man stops at regular intervals. The first man believes his win is assured because he hasn't stopped at all. When time is called and the wood stacks measured, the second man has won. The first man is astounded! How could it be? The other guy kept stopping!
What was the secret to the second man's success? He stopped to sharpen his blade, therefore the saw cut faster and much more efficiently.
The moral of the story is that we need to keep the tools of our life sharpened. I really can't say it any better than these two authors. Plus they each have a different application for the lesson. Click on the links. These short articles are worth your time.
