As a father of very young children most of my shop time occurs after 9pm, or whenever we finally get the kids fed, bathed, and off to bed. With our youngest child getting his first couple of teeth he has had a little trouble sleeping through the night. The other night, in an attempt to be a good husband I took my turn trying to sooth him at 2:30 in the morning. Well long story short, I was not able to go back to sleep. I’m not complaining, it comes with the territory of parenthood. With only a few hours of sleep that night I was still determined to spend at least a little time in the shop the following night.
That following evening in the shop I started to learn something about myself. While I’m confined to the four walls that define my shop, I am not impacted by the early stages of sleep deprivation. That night I did not look at the time until it was 1:00am, meaning I had been awake for 22.5 hours. I could have easily kept going but I knew I’d be kicking myself the next day if I did not get at least 4-5 hours of sleep. I was in the zone.
I am not sure what it is that energizes me in such a way. Is it the rows of LED lights? Is it simply because I am usually standing while I am in the shop? Or is it because I am actively using my brain to creatively solve woodworking related problems. Whatever the reason, I hope I always have that passion for woodworking.
I am sure there are a lot of people out there who get energized by doing something they truly enjoy. But I do consider myself lucky, that I have been able to identify this passion, and I am even luckier that my amazing wife continues to be supportive even when I spend many late nights working, a.k.a building, creating or tinkering, out in the shop.