There are two things that I’ve noticed happen when you build and finish a new woodshed.

I don’t really understand physics but this doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me.

The first thing is this:  when you’re building the shed it feels really big.  A 10×12 shed is a manageable little shed, in reality…it’s not all that big….not that hard to build mostly by yourself.  Until you put up the rough sawn on the walls and close in three sides it feels pretty big, though…you can stand in the framework and think, “this is a pretty big shed!  This will do!“.

Then you finish it out…take a look around…and think, “this thing is pretty small….what was I thinking?”

There is a law of physics in there somewhere…”until the plan is a reality, you can let it be as big as you want it to be…and when you’re standing on the inside of the “little” reality, you have to readjust as needed”.

A scientist would probably phrase it differently.

Now here’s the second thing that confuses the issue even more:  when you start to stack the wood that has been in a huge split pile beside the shed, it turns into a small stack inside the shed.  Before the stacking, you’re sure that, “oh…I guess it must be a couple of cords easy…it’s a good-sized pile, you know..”.

In the middle of the stacking, you’re thinking that you just didn’t cut enough wood this year.

I don’t know what it is about that shed…maybe I should market it as a shrinking shed?

I know that when I spend too much time inside of it, I come away feeling diminished somehow….so maybe it is some kind of shrinking shed…or maybe I’m just thinking, “shoot …I really did build this thing too small”.

But…on the other hand…if I’d built it to be the cavernous warehouse of a shed I envision in my head now that I have my diminutive shed built, you can imagine how depressing it would be to me to see the small pile of split firewood tucked away in the far corner.

So the conclusion to the second result might be that accomplishments are only small in contrast to the size of the dream?  Don’t dream too big…and what you accomplish won’t seem too small?

“Yeah, sure you guys went to State…but did you ever win the Super Bowl?”

No real need to get too metaphysical about it all, I guess.  When your whacking away with a splitting maul, and the pieces are piling up, it’s not a metaphysical thing…why not just let it be what it is?

Woodsheds and dreams…it all falls together in the end, anyway.   Like I’ve mentioned before…”do something…even if it’s wrong“.

A woodshed that’s real keeps your firewood a whole lot dryer than the most beautiful plan that stays inside your head.

Even if it is too small.