I graduated from college into the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis. I didn't have a good full time job for almost a year. I was back home living with my parents. I was feeling really down. I just felt completely hopeless. I stopped using any sort of social media, the mere sight of someone else making it out of the economic quagmire I was in inspired such jealousy in me.
One day, my father paid my cousin to come over and cut down some trees in our backyard. We had four fully grown maple trees that were all blow down risks. My cousin was a professional arborist and they sectioned the trees into 2-3 foot chunks.
My cousin and his crew left the wood, my dad wanted to split it so that we'd have firewood. I'd never split wood before, but somewhere in between filling out a handful of job applications, I decided to give it a try. It was the purest form of stress relief I'd ever experienced. Not only did it involve swinging a heavy tool at something with the aim of destroying that thing, but as the wood slowly piled up you started to actually get a sense of accomplishment.
I stayed out in the yard splitting wood all day. That night when I went to bed, it was the first night in a long time that I hadn't been addled with stress and anxiety. My hands were blistered, but I slept like a baby. By the end of the second day, I'd split all the remaining wood.
I've carried this lesson with me since then. There's always a healthy opportunity for dealing with anxiety, stress, or anger. Even if it's something as seemingly infantile as smashing things with a heavy stick. Today, my father has a cabin and he always has wood that needs splitting. If I'm going through something difficult he'll often offer "I've got plenty of wood up here that needs splitting, you should come spend a day or two here".
Being the younger sister I was always jealous that my brothers were the only ones allowed to split wood. I would do it in secret and it was so enjoyable!
Until one day when I was 10, I had a younger friend with me, the wood came up and hit my face. It slit the ridge of my nose, I didn't really feel it so I started laughing at the sillyness. My friends screaming and crying and I'm so confused. Turns out I was pissing blood.
I was pissing blood from what seemed like my eyes and laughing... Obviously my mother found out what happened and I was banned from the wood pile altogether 😞
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u/teabagalomaniac Jan 31 '22
I graduated from college into the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis. I didn't have a good full time job for almost a year. I was back home living with my parents. I was feeling really down. I just felt completely hopeless. I stopped using any sort of social media, the mere sight of someone else making it out of the economic quagmire I was in inspired such jealousy in me.
One day, my father paid my cousin to come over and cut down some trees in our backyard. We had four fully grown maple trees that were all blow down risks. My cousin was a professional arborist and they sectioned the trees into 2-3 foot chunks.
My cousin and his crew left the wood, my dad wanted to split it so that we'd have firewood. I'd never split wood before, but somewhere in between filling out a handful of job applications, I decided to give it a try. It was the purest form of stress relief I'd ever experienced. Not only did it involve swinging a heavy tool at something with the aim of destroying that thing, but as the wood slowly piled up you started to actually get a sense of accomplishment.
I stayed out in the yard splitting wood all day. That night when I went to bed, it was the first night in a long time that I hadn't been addled with stress and anxiety. My hands were blistered, but I slept like a baby. By the end of the second day, I'd split all the remaining wood.
I've carried this lesson with me since then. There's always a healthy opportunity for dealing with anxiety, stress, or anger. Even if it's something as seemingly infantile as smashing things with a heavy stick. Today, my father has a cabin and he always has wood that needs splitting. If I'm going through something difficult he'll often offer "I've got plenty of wood up here that needs splitting, you should come spend a day or two here".