2021-021 | IDLE HANDS & ACTIVE MOUTHS

WISDOM TRAILS: Open hands do more work than open mouths.

 

First seen in Facebook

March 10, 2018 

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IT IS ALWAYS VERY ANNOYING to see people loiter and talk while others are helping each other out so we could have coffee or prepare something like a warm meal. In my tribe, we have the “usual suspects” who would not move on their own unless you drop a coin into their ears and then the brain starts to function. You leave them to their own designs and they will remain non-functional and just talk all day. 

If you lived a sheltered life and you choose bushcraft as your interest or hobby, you need to work on those muscles. Unlike other outdoor activities, bushcraft is labor intensive. You need to expend an extra mile of energy after a long hike to appraise and set-up your sleeping spot, gather firewood, prepare a fire pit, fetch water, process food, make a fire and cook, before you can claim your relaxing time where meals are a part.

 

These are monotonous but very satisfying if you stay in a place for three days and two nights or more. These becomes very exciting when you change places every day on a week-long journey, just ranging around the mountains and forage fruits, tinder and the novelties that nature offers you as you go. Under stress of time and fatigue, observe how your mind adapt to the situation and let your thoughts settle down to the necessities of the moment. 

In bushcraft, idle talks are always reserved during meals and downtimes beside the fire. Talk is good when comparing notes as you slowly grind the daylight hours away with your discoveries and epiphanies; coaching and guiding others; and spiking up a brief conversation with funny moments before breaking up to focus on something like digging a water hole or blowing an ember to life after almost an hour of striking quartzite on steel. 

Generally, less talk gets you more time to concentrate on your tasks. Less annoying too if you are working with a blade. You can never concentrate while engaging in idle talk else you cut the wrong thing. The brain works only with one thought at a time. It cannot compete with a computer which could deliver multiple tasks all at the same time. When you process a thought of action like replying to a question, you should drop what you are doing.  

 

That is why silence is much appreciated when no human voices are interrupting your thoughts or your tasks. When your “usual suspects” start playing their tales, it is best that you give them a wide distance. The tasks at hand are more important than them. If you so desire, feed them half the fare. Ancient Greeks and Romans do that to their soldiers whose hands are found so soft.   

I have always observed that the conversationalists among us seems to always lose their appetite when putting more animation on topics where it is most needed at fireside moments. Their silence is deafening. Some of the time, they would be missed when their names are mentioned. You may hear them though chasing a lot of Zzzzzzz in their blissful slumbers with a full belly.

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.