Choices and Peace – Lessons from a Blind Woodworker

🎧 👉 Prefer audio? You can also listen to me share about this in podcast episode #053 here.

Last week’s post was all about seeing things from a different perspective. This week, I’m continuing with that theme, but this time I’m sharing what we can learn from a blind woodworker named John Furniss.

Even though he is blind, John courageously uses tools and heavy equipment as he works with wood to create stunning works of art that he describes as wooden pottery.

The reason he is blind is that he attempted suicide when he was 16. He says that he “luckily only lost his senses of sight and smell.” When hearing that he attempted suicide and lost two of his senses, it’s easy to jump to think about how limiting his life may be and make assumptions about what his life would end up looking like. But wow! Look at what he’s chosen to do! Key word there, by the way, is the word “chosen.” He made the effort and the choices to pursue something that he ended up loving, yet at first, could have seemed impossible and crazy.

As you know, the name of my business and the title of my podcast is a play on words, Charis Your Life, because what it all boils down to for me is that I’m on a mission to inspire as many people as I can to cherish their lives. Well, this man is totally doing that.

I love how he talks about using his imagination as the design software in his head. And it turns out there’s a large community of blind woodworkers...I never would’ve guessed that!

What I love the most about what John does is that when he’s doing his work, he feels peaceful. That’s what I truly believe we are all supposed to feel most of the time. If we aren’t feeling peaceful, we owe it to ourselves to do whatever we can to make changes so that we can feel more inner peace. If you’re ready to feel more peace in your life, go grab a free on-demand coaching video I have for you. Just go here to watch it.

“I am meant to live in peace.” 

– Martha Beck

🎧 👉 Prefer audio? You can also listen to me share about this in podcast episode #053 here.