Wooden Perspectives

Grainy

I was in a conversation with some good friends online when I found myself using the phrase “... insights, ideas and connections come bubbling up out of the woodwork ...” and then I added, “... of my mind.”
Not the windmills of my mind, I might add – but the woodwork!
Then, as often happens with my experience, there’s a moment where motion stops and time stands still; and in those moments all thoughts and incoming sensual data seem to fuse with a flash, so I’m left wondering and considering “where has that come from – and where is it leading me to?”
And, as is usually the case, this got me answering my curiosity by thinking along different lines – following a certain train of thought.
Or, as it then morphed, “following a certain grain of thought.”

Now when we think of a grain of thought we might imagine this is a small particle, rather like a grain of sand.
So I’d invite you to reconsider this for a moment - what if the grain could be represented rather like the grain in wood. A grain, a patterning within the strata or the layers of wood, a grain formed when that wood was a living and breathing entity; a grain of character. A grain to be utilised, to be admired, to be polished so as to enhance the beauty, the contours and the nature of that grain.

Another feature of the grain within any wood is that each one is totally unique, rather like a fingerprint. The grain that we see came from a live tree, perhaps one of thousands of similar types of trees - and yet this one particular grain is never totally replicated in nature. This is rather like each one of us – totally unique – each with our own minds, and with every grain of thought different.

It’s a fascinating perspective.

Next, I pursued the notion of things that come bubbling up out of the woodwork.

Insect ideas

That metaphorical phrase, coming up out of the woodwork, has its origins with the nature of certain dormant insects at some stage of their life cycles. They then suddenly appear active, inside and on the surface of the wood, triggered by certain conditions. Now in the nature of insects, they all have a purpose, even though we might scratch our heads over what that purpose might be. Now some ideas, and some insects, are ‘good’ (i.e better for us) and others are not – even though those ideas all have a purpose too.

Of course certain ideas can stay in the mind and grow and feed in the mind and start to eat away at the fabric, rather like woodworm – using the energy of the mind for its activity, and at the same time sapping the mind from being able to use that energy elsewhere.

Not unsurprisingly, the metaphor of the wood-like nature of the mind becomes more multi-layered the more you consider it.

Nots

Knots in the fabric of wood are imperfections lying at the base of a side branch or a dormant bud. Now if we view our own developing lives rather as for a tree, then when branches form there are going to be knots within the fabric of our minds. These metaphorical knots might be viewed as being triggered by imprints, traumatic experiences, periods of hormonal or chemical change and alignment.
Now the knots, when viewed as part of the grain-like nature of our minds, can be things of beauty – even though they might mar the technical nature, the functionality or the usefulness of the wood, in terms of grain. They are all part of the richness of our character, of our nature – and yet they also can cause us irritation when our minds don’t quite seem to work in the way that we want.

The thing about knots is this - they are only part of the tree’s history and not its Now, not its present; because in the Now of the tree, the knots are not yet formed – they are “nots”.

Sometimes, due to the fabric of time within the mind, we can even get to imagine what those knots (or indeed any knots) might be like for us – whether they exist in our history or not! And if you feel somewhat detached from the argument at this stage then consider someone with a phobia about flying. Someone who takes a past knot and develops it to such an extent through their imagination that it is distorted in their future, and then applies that imaginary future knot back into their present - applying it with such convincing belief that a whole range of protective mechanisms of thought and action kick in. 

So what if the knots in our mind were to be “nots” too?

Seeing them as “nots” rather than knots just lets them go completely, and consigns them to the history of where they were really intended to be. Unravelling or untying the knots is another way to deal with them, by stripping out the emotional content and allowing them to take their rightful place in and around the smoothness of the grain of where they are.

Of course our understanding of the nature of the tree, the context of the knot, and the properties of wood, makes the seeing of “nots” easy – and the keeping or the letting go can become a very simple choice.
When we just decide to unravel or untie the knots, our wood requires a lot more regular care and attention. And for some of us that is the preferred way – an ‘easier’ way than getting to understand the nature of the tree and the properties of our wood.

We do need to remember though, that we can never eradicate the knots for they will always be there. So - it is probably best to let them be nots - then having to treat them (with treatment!) will never get the chance to be an ongoing necessity!

It’s all a matter of choice - but things become much clearer when we get to see the wood of the trees.