The Trouble Tree

Thoughts on 169 days of quarantine. 

 

One thing that is not happening for many who are working from home is the idea of leaving work to come home. The story below explains it. 

“The Trouble Tree”

 

The carpenter who was hired to help a man restore an old farmhouse had just finished his first day on the job and everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. First of all, on his way to work he had a flat tire that cost him an hour’s worth of pay, then his electric saw broke, and after work his old pickup truck refused to start.

 

His new boss volunteered to give him a lift home and the whole way to his house the carpenter sat in stone silence as he stared out his window. Yet on arriving, he invited his boss in for a few minutes to meet his family. As they walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When he opened the door, he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was one big smile as he hugged his two small children and kissed his wife.

 

Afterwards, the man walked his boss to his car to say thank you. Now on their way out of the house, the boss’ curiosity got the best of him so he had to ask the man about the tree on the front porch. He said, I noticed when you came up on the porch before going into your house you stopped and touched the tree, why?

 

“Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied. “I know I can’t stop from having troubles out on the job, but one thing’s for sure – my troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them up again.” 

 

“Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick ‘em up, they aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”

  

What a great idea!  Unfortunately, that is not happening to people who are working 24/7 from home. People need to find a way to disconnect the part of their home where they do the work to enter home in a symbolic way. We should all come up with our own “Trouble Tree” to drop our problems off at night when our work is done. Someone asked the question, if 2020 was a positive affirmation, what would it be? Answers: “I can do hard things,” “What does not kill you, make you stronger,” “These are our days. We can do this. We were born for these days.” 

 

Con amor,

Vero