Posts by David Schatsky from September 02, 2008

David Schatsky | September 02, 2008, 09:55 PM
What I Learned About Work in the Woods of Maine

I'm just back from a couple of weeks' vacation in rural Maine and New Hampshire with my family. One morning, my kids and I each went off in different directions to spend an hour in solitude in the woods.

As I walked along a trail that paralleled a stream bed I was struck by the number of frogs crossing the trail in front of me in both directions. They are so busy, I thought to myself. They called to mind the streets of midtown Manhattan at lunch time: no one is on the side of the street they need to be on, and masses of people are streaming past each other to get where others have come from.

Further down the trail I stopped to admire a beaver pond. The water was glassy, the beaver lodge a sturdy dome of sticks and logs constructed at the far end of the pond. The scene was quiet and the air still, but I could hear the sounds of tiny creatures: the high-pitched sound of insects seeking food, and beyond that, the lower-pitched sound of bees pollinating clover.

When you stop and listen, what passes for tranquility is actually a workplace teaming with activity.

A hawk gliding overhead seems to be loafing. But he's working too, surveying a vast terrain, and choosing his moment to strike at vulnerable prey.

Hard at work, but in harmony with the world and well matched with the task at hand, even busyness can feel like tranquility. That's what I learned about work in the woods of Maine.