learning new skills

The Writing Shed floor is under snow and hibernating for the winter, but we are managing to still get a little work done in the workshop. We are building roof trusses and securing them with mending plates. I am banging away in the video to secure the mending plates on the seams of the roof trusses. Andrew is turning over the trusses so we can put mending plates on both sides of the joints. We made 6 and have 1 more to go!

A truss is a framework, supporting a structure. A truss is a support. Mending plates secure the joints of the trusses. Mending plates secure the aches, the depressions, the vulnerable places. Trust me. Homemade is best.

As I spent time in the workshop with Remi and Andrew, I couldn’t help but think about what love isn’t. It doesn’t tear down the joints. It does mend. It doesn’t leave the vulnerable places open to collapse. It supports a structure that wants to exist in the first place.

It feels so good to be included in the physical act of building a roof that will support my love of writing and to help create a family where we make each other feel safe, soft, and cared for. It has not always been this way. I have known the tearing down of all that was good in me. I was in a marriage that swatted away my thoughts and feelings like dead flies. I was a young woman who used to hate her face. I kept going back to family relationships that were no good for me. I know what the good life is now. This is the homemade life. This is the slow way. This is the mending place.

How do you mend?