A Day at the Ocean for a 75s Project

      My son, Ela, thought a long time before giving me his item for my 75x75 project. It had to be special (not something already on the list), appropriate to me, and doable in the next few months, given both the number of unfinished 75s on my list and my upcoming wedding in May. What he came up with answered all criteria: cut 75 rounds of wood and woodburn a word onto each, making pendants to give to guests at my birthday party.

      As with many of my items, I amended the suggestion. Instead of cutting rounds of wood (I'm not good with a saw), I would collect pieces of driftwood and woodburn words onto them. One of several projects I did for my house while it was being built (while I was getting my Ph.D. at the University of Oregon, eight years ago) was to woodburn quotations on the risers of my stairs. That's one of the reasons Ela's 75s item was so appropriate. That and because words are my thing.

      Collecting driftwood would also be an excuse to spend a day at the coast. Mike, of course, was more than willing to help me. The opportunity came on Sunday of last week. We chose to go to Tolowa Dunes State Park, just outside Crescent City, California.

      We couldn't have chosen a better day. No place in the world could have been more beautiful last week than the northern California coast. The sea was emerald green with a white-froth surf that gentled onto the shore with a soothing, massage-sound-track, underneath-hearing boom. There was nothing violent or seething about it, nothing gray and dark, or intense and loud. The Pacific Ocean had taken a day off from its hard work.

      When we walked over the dunes – and after we recovered from our first stunned look at the emerald-green ocean – I gave Mike a bag and instructions: look for small pieces of driftwood, smooth enough to write on but big enough for words like "graciousness" and "understanding." Pieces with interesting color or shape would be especially good.

      We wandered through scattered driftwood for an hour, then reconvened and spread our finds on the sand. We had about 150 pieces. I threw out some as too big or too rough, too round or too mottled, but I kept most of them, since I couldn't know for sure what would work till I started the project.

      We ate lunch sitting on a log facing that incomparably beautiful ocean, then took a long walk down the long beach, looking towards the mountains of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness white with snow in the distance. Over the dunes, the mountains of the Siskiyou Wilderness rose even closer and were even brighter with snow. The sky was a cloudless blue, the ocean green and white, the mountains purple and white, the wind only a brisk breeze – a perfect day!

      At home that night, I spread my driftwood on the floor to dry out and lose, I hoped, its sand.

I contemplated the project. I would insert eyelets in some, so they could hang from hanging plants or in windows. Others could sit on shelves or be carried in pockets. At my birthday party, people could choose the word that spoke to them and have a memento. Looking through 75 pieces to choose one would give them an idea of how big 75 is.

      The next day I started wood-burning the words: Beauty, Gardens, Generosity, Mountains, Love.

I thought of my sister Sharon as I burned "Yoga" onto a piece of wood; of my daughter-in-law as I wrote "Dance"; of my sister Laura as I wrote "Gardenf; of Ela as I wrote "Rhythm" and a whole lot of other words because the project had been his idea. And of Mike, all evening, because we had had such a special day collecting driftwood at the Pacific Ocean on one of the most beautiful days the Northern California coast has to offer.

The 75 words burned onto driftwood

Amazement                Fullness                     Love                    Solidity

Art                              Garden                      Loveliness            Song

Beauty                        Generosity                Magic                   Stars

The blessing of rain   Gladness                    Merriment           Strength

Bliss                           Good deeds               Mindfulness         Sunshine

Caring                        Good health               Moon                  Touch

Cheerfulness              Goodheartedness       Mountains           Trees

Color                          Goodness                  Music                   Understanding

Community                Graciousness             Nature                 Vibrancy

Compassion               Gratitude                   Peace                   Voluptuousness

Courage                     Happiness                  Pleasure               Warmth

Creativity                   Heart                         Plenty                   Water

Dance                         Home                        Poetry                   Whimsy

Depth                         Hope                         Presence                Wonder

Empathy                    Humor                       Respect                  Yoga

Family                       Insight                       Rhythm

Festivity                     Joy                            Richness

Flowers                      Kindness                   Rivers

Forgiveness               Laughter                    Smiles

Friendship                 Light                          Snow