A Slight Change of Plans

​     Imagine…you get up before the crack and take your youngest to a class he was gifted for Christmas.  It’s an 8 hours class, and with it being 1 ½ hours to get there, you decide the best thing to do instead of driving back and forth is to dress better than troll under a bridge and go tool around the area, do some shopping, have a me day. 
     You get to the destination, thinking you’re going to drop him off and then hightail it out of there, but before you can get to hightailing the instructor asks you what you’re plans are for the day.  Hmmmmm…shopping?  Moonshine tasting?  Then he says how about stay and take the class.  They have an opening.  I said I’m dressed for shopping and wearing a white shirt.  Instructor says there’s shirts up front and go grab one to change into.  I said although I want to learn, I don’t figure Young’un would want his ‘ole mom cramping his style.  Instructor says he’ll put us on opposite ends of the work area and we won’t even need to look at each other if we don’t want to.  I said they wouldn’t have been planning on me for lunch and didn’t want to impose.  He says there’ll be plenty of food.  I mean really, how could I say no?  Besides, I had truly really really reeeeally wanted to learn anyway.  Did I mention this was a beginning blacksmithing class?  Well, it was a blacksmithing class.
     Next thing you know, I’ve changed my shirt and am sitting down with Youn’gun, ready to learn about being a blacksmith.  Yes, we sat down together.  We even worked together throughout the whole day, his choice, too.  I have got to tell you, I was absolutely captivated.  From beginning to end, my mind was just a whirlwind of ideas.  Not only that, it was absolutely amazing listening to Doug Lockhart talk about how being a blacksmith had become his passion.  It was amazing hearing how his children are following in his footsteps, how they work together, how his love of creating things has found a home inside them, too. 
     I’m not going to lie, I was nervous when it came to the actual making portion of the program.  No, not the heat from the forge or hitting something with a hammer.  It was the fact that I was learning something up front and center with one of our kids, that we were learning together.  We were both in the same novice boat wearing the same lifejacket of inexperience, learning something we were both interested in.
     Let me tell you, if you’ve not had the opportunity to learn the basics of a skill that’s caught your interest, do it.  Take the plunge.  Don’t let something hold you back.  I could have told Doug no, I’ll do it another day, chancing that day never came about.  I could have missed the opportunity to spend the day with our youngest learning something awesome and new.  Without a doubt I would have spent the day looking for things to do to keep me busy all by myself, wishing I would have said yes.  See where I’m going with this?  Let me put it another way…get off your butt, stop making excuses, and do it.  You never know where the experience may lead.
     So there you have it folks.  Young’un and I are now the proud owners of several types of hooks we made together.  We left the Lockhart family and their Southern Ohio School of Blacksmithing that day feeling proud and excited about our accomplishments.  Now we need to find ourselves some equipment of our own to practice what we’ve learned.  We came home telling Hon we need to find an anvil…we need to find a forge…and hammers and tongs…  Our eyes have been opened to some truly cool and creative things we can make from a piece of metal that we’d not have thought about before.  Smiling & Waving, Sharon