Most all woodworkers and many other people have a reverence for wood. It is a material that was at one time alive. All trees live in an environment with traumatic events. These traumatic events affect the tree and are reflected in the grain of the wood that we work with. A high wind, a wet summer, a dry sunny year, a lightning strike near or on the tree, another tree nearby dying and falling, or not, and hundreds of other events during the course of a tree's life are noted in the tree's autobiography. I always feel honored to be using slices of this book in the pieces that I make.
It is said that it takes an eye, a hand, and a heart to create furniture that has soul. It is the eye to see the proportions and curves. it is the hand to have the skill to make a joint that is sound, and the heart to have the courage to see and change a piece with the instinct that it will be an improvement.