“How about I give you Cadence’s dog food?”
“Wonderful,” said Matt Downer, friend and fab wood worker, “I’ll swing by and pick it up. I’m coming to town to drop off my lamp for the Ah-Haa auction.”
I saw Matt’s new lamp on Facebook and am still wiping the drool off my computer. “Don’t you have a hard time parting with such a special piece?”
“Not any more. I had a good lesson about that several years ago.
“Rebecca brought me a nice piece of wood from the Northwest.”
Matt spent years staring into the soul of that wood, trying to divine what it wanted to be. It accompanied them through several moves and finally he turned it into a beautiful vessel. “How to price something like that?” he said, “I can’t charge enough for my time. The gallery owner and I agreed on a price of $550. Of which I’d get half.
“One day in my post office box, there was a check for $275. I was so excited. I wanted to know about the people who loved that piece as much as I did. Where were they from, what color was their HAIR? I practically ran to the gallery to find out the details.
“Well….it turned out, the couple did love the piece, but they had dropped it, making a small chip in the lip. The gallery owner forced them to buy it. At a discount, so he didn’t even make any money on it.
“This piece that I loved so much. The folks were probably resentful about having to buy it. I could’ve fixed it if I had the chance. Sigh…After that I decided to let them go.
“I’m happy with everything I make. I kiss it good-bye and let it go. And then I make more beautiful things. There’s joy in the process. I can always make more beautiful things.”
I’m rooting around in his story, feeling the truth, shining it up with my polishing cloth.
Letting go, always a challenge for me. Whether it’s a well-worn shirt, a piece of writing, or a beloved pet, I’m always sure things are better under my control.
Hard to make room for new while clenching the old.
