When the hand repeatedly performs an action, it acquires a memory.  When a hand puts the memory to use, It dignifies the memory.

Wandering through the woods surrounding my family ranch, I remember hearing of volcanic Tuff being discovered atop Buffalo Mountain.

I remember the day I found a small hill in a clearing with a single white pine tree growing on it, a place I never found again in 15 years, on those 140 acres.

I remember hearing coyotes, breathing and scuffling outside my tent.

I remember floating on the Narrows of Sardis Lake, with water moccasins darting through the early-morning mist on the surface of the water.

Of all memories from my early life, these types are really the only vivid ones.

I find these impressions of the wooded area* between Buffalo Mountain and the Potato Hills in Southeast Oklahoma to be the source of an idealized identity I would eventually claim for myself.  The process of discovery through woodshedding and activity provides a mechanism to reclaim/remold these memories, and forge new ones to fill in the gaps.

* Decimal Degrees: Latitude: 34.73222  Longitude: -95.24556