Resurrecting An Old Friend and Soaring On the Winds of Change
As Spring blossoms, it is time for unexpected and surprising positive changes.
THE DAWNING LIGHT # 72 Thursday April 12, 2023
STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES Section # 8
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
This Spring is definitely a time of renewal, rebirth and positive change for us and our lives here on Still Mountain. Its all about being ready to move out and move up in every way…
And we feel this call on many levels.
We are like sailors on the sea of life who must be sensitive to the winds of change.
In prayer, I have been getting the inner guidance to make some unexpected and surprising changes.
As I knew would happen, the demand for our firewood has evaporated as we move into sunny, hot days. This steady trickle of income that we received through selling our firewood gave us just enough to help cover the basic operating expenses of Still Mountain.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan “Starting work on resurrecting our little old dump truck”
MAINTAINING OUR TIME FREEDOM
We have been consciously pursuing attaining “time Freedom”, that is the freedom to use this most precious non renewable resource to focus solely on the most important things, for many years.
Some of the conscious changes that we made to attain “time freedom” was to constantly reduce our financial needs, which we have cut down to the bare minimum.
Now that the firewood income stream is drying up, I have been praying for what we can do to produce enough money to keep Still Mountain afloat, but which still leaves me with the time freedom to focus most of it on writing and publishing this newsletter.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan “Dump bed went up smoothly but load is stuck.”
SURPRISING AND UNEXPECTED GUIDANCE FROM PRAYER
I was surprised when what I saw and heard to do was to reactivate a very limited, much smaller version of our closed and dormant Property Clean Up, Junk Removal and Dump Run Service.
For years, we invested most of our time and energy doing this service for local folks as our full time work until we realized we had to close it so we could focus on creating the new simpler life we have now.
We were so caught up in that old life of working 6 days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day that we had no time freedom at all.
We certainly cannot and will not return to that old hamster wheel.
In prayer, I saw that we can offer this service in a much simpler way that we can enjoy and feel good about it…
Photo Credit: Chinmayan “ The load won’t dump!”
For this , I saw that we could take on small projects that we can do in one day, working just one day per week, for folks that are good natured and appreciative.
We will take only the projects we want to do, and say no to the really gnarly, hard or nasty work we choose not to put ourselves through.
That leaves the other 6 days free for us to focus on writing and publishing full time, and the other important things we feel called to do.
For the past few days, we have been moving out to launch our new service and income stream.
RESURRECTING AN OLD FRIEND
Fortunately, after selling our new truck when we closed the old business, we kept a small old dump truck to use here on Still Mountain.
Last summer, we used it like a dumpster when we cleared one of our store rooms. After filling its cargo bay to overflowing with junk and trash, we left it sitting in the yard, untouched, unregistered and fully loaded for months.
I saw that it was time to resurrect this old reliable truck friend who has never let us down to use in the new Clean Ups service.
It is a 1981 Ford E 350…it was originally a U Haul truck that some one converted into a dump truck to use on their ranch many years ago.
Even though it is 42 years old, and funky in some ways… it is still mechanically strong and functional.
It is one of my favorite trucks because it is simple, always starts eagerly and does anything asked of it with confidence.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan “I floored it, the truck leapt forward and the heavy load slid out like hot butter.”
I spent a few hours in the process of resurrecting it. It has not been started for a long time, sitting and forgotten as storms raged through months of freezing nights.
It was hard to start, but after several attempts, coughed to life and sputtered before running sweet and smooth.
I could feel that the load was very heavy, from being rained on for months.
I was concerned that the hydraulic dump ram would not be able to lift it or that, even if it did that it would be so jammed in that it wouldn’t come out.
But, once we made it to the Transfer Station and backed into the dump area, the dump bed rose up to its full height without strain.
The load was stuck in place and wasn’t budging until I used some old tricks.
I got back into the cab with the dump bed pointing skyward, put it in low gear and floored it.
The truck leaped up and forward with such force that the entire heavy load slid out like water out of a faucet, completely emptying the truck.
That was a wonderful moment, for now its clear we will have our old friend to use in doing our new service.
Today, we started cleaning it and getting it ready for some repairs and upgrades that will make it much easier to use.
If this old dump truck were a faithful dog, it would be wagging its tale and jumping up and down, spinning in circles and barking excitedly with the sheer pleasure of being reactivated and now be going back to the work for which it was built.
Step by step, day by day…we keep moving it up everyday!
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
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Image Credit: Still Mountain Meditation Retreat