A Prayer of Attention  March 2, 2010  Download Story As winter
in Chicago starts to wind down, we should give thanks for its
mildness so far. But mild or not, writer Tom Montgomery-Fate
will be sorry to see it go.  For whether he's in the Windy City
or a snow-covered wood, he finds a certain solace in this
season. Tom Montgomery-Fate is the author of the book Steady and
Trembling: Art, Faith, and Family in an Uncertain World.  It's
cold when I arrive: 20 degrees outside the cabin, thirty inside.
So I lay some kindling in the iron stove, light it, close the
door, and go out to the wood pile to split some logs. The weight
and rhythm of the maul swinging in my hands feels good, like a
pendulum, like I have become some sort of organic clock. I rip
open time with the THRUCK of the heavy iron wedge, dividing a
pine log into halves, and then THRUCK, and THRUCK–– into
quarters. The hard dull sound and sweet bitter scent of that
moment, of the newly split wood, drifts and diffuses through the
airâ€”marks time and then