Created Cabin
The crisp cold air slightly burns as you breathe it deeply. Glints of sunshine are appearing through the trees. Fog wanders close to the ground. It sounds almost silent. A few bird calls here and there. Wind rustling the leaves. The air has an energy about it. Daybreak is here. Time is now. Nothing is going to distract you or stop your plans for the day. This is the forest, your forest.
I have spent countless hours daydreaming about this scene. Everyone has a perfect place. A moment that can only exist in their heads. Mine takes place in this forest. I have spent years here. Learning and building everything I need. Over time my hands have become more calloused and my mind has become made over. Changed from the present constant need for attention. I am an older, calmer man, at ease.
It’s this cabin, this idea that I cling to when life seems bleak. It’s a log cabin built in a simple manner. One front door, a few windows that stay open most of the year. A stone chimney on the side with white smoke billowing out. Every log in the house I picked and cut down myself. This house wasn’t built quickly. It took months of hard work and preparation. There is a cellar on the side dug down below the cabin.
Around the side is a modest garden with a few vegetables growing along with a few chosen flowers. The chickens have a coop they rest in at night, but they are free to wander during the day. If you walk to the south for a moment or two you come across a fast moving brook. With water so clean and pure you can simply cup your hand and enjoy. There is a simple hammock not far away. It is placed in an area where at two in the afternoon the sun shines on it, warming the body for a perfect nap.
Of course my loyal dog is with me most of the day. She wanders within a fifty foot radius of me. Looking for things to bring to my attention or for sticks that I can toss. Protection is not an issue; this forest is a peaceful place. Over time I have learned how to walk on the forest floor making little to no sound. Learning the best ways around, becoming friends with the trees.
Inside the cabin is just what you would expect. It is just one large room. A stove and sink on one side, a couch and rocking chairs near the front windows. The bed in the back corner. The bed would be large with a multitude of blankets and pillows. Simple quilts would be laying over the chairs in the room. Books everywhere, most of them about how to build and garden. Handmade journals with my explorations written in them line a shelf on the wall.
A good friend asked me one night what I wanted. I replied, “Some toast with jam and some tea.” We talked about those two simple things till sleep captured us both. This toast with homemade apricot jam and fresh churned butter. That hot cup of creamy, slightly bitter tea. They both exist in this cabin. That is the delightful gift that is offered in this cabin when you enter. Another friend told me that she hopes I find my cabin one day.
She knew that this daydream, this vivid world in my head, was what I lived for. That it was a goal I must attain one day. Even now, years later, I still daydream about the same place. I ponder the endless activities that I want to accomplish there. I know that yearning causes reality to be less than it should be. That this place will never be quite what it is in my head. I still choose to dream and hope. Hope that I can make this a reality one day. That I can learn to be a person that has all these things. “Love hopes all things”
~Tom