Spooky Action Ranch Report: Week Nine 2015
The Closet
I am only two weeks over schedule, but finally the closet is complete and I have been able to move my stuff back in. We have not yet put the doors on, as we are having them specially ordered to fit the space. They will be double swinging doors so the whole closet can be opened and accessed at once.
The process of building the closet was pretty challenging for me. This was my first construction project, and I learned to use the mitar saw, and how to do a wood glue and screw combination, but the real learning came from the challenge to have confidence, to trust myself and my instincts, as the plans I created for the closet collided with reality.
It is an interesting and powerful skill to have the confidence, perception, and flexibility to allow the plan to change when it needs to. We often set paths for ourselves, declare some far off destination, and set off on our journey. But the journey is never exactly what we anticipate. If we continue to drive forward on our intended path, and not work with the realities that present themselves to us, we encounter frustration and even failure. If we can have the presence and the flexibility to change our plans, however, that can lead to great insight and inspiration.
I had a teacher, Daniel Stien, who taught this lesson as a part of a creating new work class. He would talk about pushing really hard against a locked door trying to find a way out of a room. We can pound and beat on the door, but it will remain locked. As long as we are rigid with ourselves, we never relax and step back and get perspective and see the hallway just beside it.
So, I set a plan for this closet, but the realities of three dimensional space differ from the fantastical images in my head (and on the paper). It took some struggle for me to shift from trying to force my plan into the space to improvising with what the space actually presented me with. In the end, I think that I ended with a final product that is much better than my plan.
Here is the closet moving from traditional single beam and shelf to a double level right hand hanging section, shelves, and ladder to the attic.
