Love and patience

   He laid in bed a little longer this morning, guessing yesterday's workload was more then he realized. Eventually, he got up and started a pot of coffee to jump-start the morning and pick up where he stopped yesterday. Sitting at the old table he had refinished awhile back he recalled finding it at the curb waiting for the trash collector, but he saw potential in it and rescued it from certain death at the landfill.

   He loved working with his hands and discovered he was pretty good at it.His dad had taught him how to work with wood, patiently showing him how to cut and sand and above all to put himself into every piece he worked on.Many nights and weekends, they would spend in the workshop a father teaching his son and a son trying his best to make his dad proud.

   When the war began he joined up like so many other young men, leaving behind families and girlfriends to travel thousands of miles away to fight for the country they all so dearly loved.He was one of the lucky ones and returned home unharmed, at least physically.He didn’t sleep very well and spent a lot of time in the workshop making furniture and selling it to local stores who always praised his craftsmanship and attention to detail. It was at one such store he met the girl of his dreams, and they married six months later.

   Years passed, and they built a life together making and selling furniture that eventually became well known and in demand across the country.His workshop was five times the size of his dads who passed away only seven years after he returned from the war.He used his dad's tools to build the way he was taught making sure each finished piece was one he was proud to sell. He often wondered how many goodnight stories and warm summer nights sipping ice tea were done sitting in something he built?

   Now he is alone in the workshop, his wife and best friend went on to the lord a few years back. Things were never the same, and he was tired.It didn’t take long to sell the business to an eager buyer with his own big dreams, and financially he guessed he could do whatever he wanted to do.It was hard for him to say goodbye to the home they had built and his beloved workshop but that day did come, and he settled into a small cabin on a peaceful stream where he built a small workshop

   His bones ached most days, and it was common to find him sleeping mid day in one of the chairs he built. He still used his dads' tools that always reminded him of his youth and his dads' love and patience. Tomorrow his great-grandson would stop by to learn the family trade. He would learn with the same tools and be guided by the same love and patience as his great, great grandpa once used.But it wasn’t all about making chairs; it was sitting with each other at an old table that was once thrown away by one and brought back to life by another. It was his favorite place in the whole world.

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