A Small
Practice
Trail Tokens began on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Carved by hand and left along the trail.
Not to mark where we had been, but to leave something small behind.
Something someone else might notice.
Maybe a small kindness, if it's needed.
They’re made from birch, pine, or basswood.
No two are the same.
Sometimes they’re found.
Sometimes they’re not.
If you come across one, pick it up.
Carry it for a while.
Or leave it for the next person.
There’s no instruction to it.
Just a small thing, placed quietly.
Walk on.
Honoring the Grain
The work is simple.
A knife, a small piece of wood, and time.
Most are carved from naturally felled wood. Pine, birch, popple. Whatever feels right in the hand.
Still learning. Following the grain to where the wood wants to go.
There’s a long tradition of this kind of carving up here.
Slow. Practical. Shaped by hand.
This is just a small place in it.