Forging Success - The blacksmith's Way

Hammering the nails.

It was twenty years ago, when my parents built our home. I never liked it, the dirt dust and the constant noise, the pollution was too much for the wheezy chesty kid like me. Sometimes I would help, out of necessity. Sometimes I was given task of hammering the nails. Have you ever done that? Have you ever hammered a nail and strike your own finger? Well, I have, not once, but many times.

Nails are a Scarce resource. They are reuseable, however. When they built temporary boxes for concrete beams, after it was hardened, the nails were removed. And when they come out of the wood, often they would bend in the middle. Like a crooked old man. These rusty old nails need straightening before being reused. And there were thousands of them. Often, I was given the task of straightening the nails. A bucket full of them.

Forging Success: https://unsplash.com/@supergios

I would sit on a bench, taking a nail on my left, keep on a piece of wood and hammer it with my right. Several times, rotate it a bit here and there, and Vola! The rust is gone, and the nail is straight, as new as straight from the shop. It is good feeling to do it a dozen times. Yet, the bucket of nails would never finish, as everyday crooked nails appear in the bucket from Nowhere! And the rate I am doing it is not at all going to keep the bucket empty. The best Sisyphean punishment I can imagine.

Success of a Nail is defined by the Hammer.

Now I realize however, it is not at all about hammering the nails. Having been climbed the tallest trees in the jungle of life in mindfulness, now I realize the lessons I learned from forging nails were the ones which took me where I am today. To see the horizon above the canopy of the internal jungle of thoughts in my head. It was about resilience, endurance, innovativeness of the boring task of hammering nails I face in life. And like good old days, when I look at the bucket, I see the rate I am hammering them is never fast enough to keep the bucket empty.

The bucket keeps of adding, its own nails out of nowhere. Not giving me a second to spare. Yet I see myself, sitting on the good old bench, hammering them one by one. Occasionally rest, to have a cup of tea. What am I expecting. This is life at its best, the happiness is created by the hardships of life. Would you not agree? If all the nails are straight, where is the fun in it? What would I rather do if it wasn't for the nails I am hammering. I realize, I am defined by the nails, just like my success.

Forging Success Blacksmith's way.

Because I have been to the blacksmith the other day, I know thing or two about forging success in life. You can either blame that the metal is too strong, or you can start heating it today. You can sleep in a corner like the blacksmith's deaf dog, or pull the bellow to generate more heat, from your left hand, while hammering it from your strong right, while it is hot and shiny. And little by little it will shape into something valuable, a knife, a nail or an axe to kill your enemies with. Ha Ha.

Hammer it with mindfulness, and hammer it with creativity, hammer it with experience, hammer it hard, long and strong with all you might. Because every crooked nail can be straightened, and every metal will melt with enough heat. And I know this by experience. However, when you are tired and sweaty, drink your tea, or Coca-Cola. Do, not forget your lunch. Take a walk in the garden through those beautiful rose beds, that you planted last year. As, nails would never stop filling your bucket, and blocks of iron always appears on your door. Life is about hammering nails. And Life is about resting in the Garden of Eden at the same time. Do, both in mindfulness, and wisdom of a blacksmith.

"You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nail being Hammered Poem