For several weeks I had no desire left in me to rebuild my shop and start over.
One night, as I poured myself into my memories, I read a story that I had written in my first story book catalogue. The words jumped off the page and into my heart, they were my words: "As long as I live you can always find me close to the Ole Red River. I was born here, raised here; my heart and soul are here along the sandbars and swift waters of Ole Red listening to the wind whispering through the willers."
I began that night making plans to rebuild! In a few days a big yellow bulldozer came and buried the charred aftermath of my shop. I soon had a new shop, some new tools and some new equipment; not what I had before, but I learned to make do.