March 2026 SOLC–Day 10
A huge thank you to Two Writing Teachers for all that they do to create an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write, learn, share and grow.
http://www.twowritingteachers.org

While many of you may be cranking open the windows, donning short sleeves or tank tops, and bearing your ankles or even (gasp!) legs to the air, I’m still restoking my wood stove every morning. Yup. It’s almost springtime in Maine. 

This morning as I squat and feed logs into the wood stove, it occurs to me that I won’t be doing this for that much longer. Daylight savings has arrived and coincidentally, the past several mornings have been  warmer. It was even 43˚F on Sunday morning, which is quite warm by March in Maine standards. (I’m willfully ignoring the forecast which has inches of snow arriving overnight on Saturday and highs below freezing again next week.)

I love our wood stove. I could write an ode to it. (Has anyone ever written an ode to a wood stove? I jot that question down in my notebook to check out later.)  Having a back up source of heat is essential in Maine, where winter storms can knock out power for days on end. While I appreciate the dependability, it’s not what I love most about our stove. Our wood stove not only provides heat, but also sets a tone of pure comfort. It offers an invitation to settle in and relax. Its cheerful orange glow on dark winter mornings is a faithful companion, and its steady tick accompanies the scratch of my pen in my notebook. There’s a generosity to its radiating heat against my back.  

Wasn’t it Benjamin Franklin who invented the wood stove? I wonder idly. I google it and confirm that random thought. Apparently Franklin was urged to take out a patent for his design. He refused to do so, and I further discover that he didn’t patent any of his many inventions. Then I read an accompanying quote from his autobiography: “…that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.” 

Wow. Now that’s a refreshing stance.

Maybe I should write an ode to Franklin!