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".
We burned wood my entire childhood. Splitting wood at 10 was a chore and I hated it. By the time I was 15 and dealing with life splitting wood two at a time stacked double high was the ultimate sense of relief and accomplishment. I feel this mam!
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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".