We had a recent ice storm and there was lots of damage everywhere in the community. It happens, we just have to deal with it. The night of the start we heard a loud CRACK ! Followed by a BOOM !! I ran around the house to see if any windows or doors had opened. I shone the flashlight outside to see if any trees had snapped. Lo and behold a giant branch 25 feet or greater had snapped and was now hanging on top of 2 or 3 healthy still attached branches. There were other pine trees that had broken branches entangled within the tree network.

i was grateful there was no damage to the house, but this was going to be a big chore. The following day, I called a landscaper to take a look but with all the ice and snow nothing was going to happen for the next few weeks. In the afternoon, on returning from work I kept looking at this disaster and felt powerless and frustrated that “ this happened to me”. Yet I thought what was the lesson in all this for me? Now let us be clear I have ZERO experience in any outdoor stuff. It is not in my wheel house to do these things. So I am always dependent on someone else.

Well I remembered my inadequacy of cooking and the subsequent experience after I got over my fears. So I went to the garage and opened up my tool box full of tools bought decades ago on advice of a friend, without any idea of how to use them nor have I ever used them ! I found a hatchet.

I went to work for the next 2 hours along with my son to cut off branches to lighten the load of the dead branches. It went well, but I needed more help. So we ordered an axe and a hand saw from Amazon. Two days later we were back to work chopping, hacking and releasing the healthy branches and leveraging other limbs to let the broken ones to come down. I had watched a few YouTube videos on safe methods of using the axe and the saw. It paid in dividends.

Success. Now the mission to practice axing and dissect all the dead branches into logs began. I learned a new art. Felt confident and it was good outdoor exercise. The moral of the story was more about my 2025 goal of becoming self sufficient, especially in areas that I have no expertise. Pushing past the fear and learning something new gives us a different level of self evolution. It is when we take responsibility for the reality that we are in and become more integral and authentic with our life, that we find the magic of the human spirit.

Ps our friend David Neal Came in with his timely help and saved us a ton of time with his chainsaw and tackled the few much heavier and thicker logs.. much appreciated 🙏 lesson….. never be afraid to ask for help when you are struggling especially when learning something new

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