A feel-good engine fueled by awesomeness

our tree

Do you know the feeling you get after a day where you really feel, you have achieved something? To me it is like fuel into my good mood engine and it makes me shine inside, it makes me feel alive. And if you have not noticed yet, I am additionally proud when I did something that generally is not expected from women. This just adds some awesomeness to the good feeling.

My mom heats her house with an oven, so once in a while we go to visit her in order to help out preparing the wood: cut it, pile it up, carry it into the house, etc. Early spring we do the biggest wood day of the year, where we actually go into the forest and get wood we have bought from the ranger. As I lived in Denmark until recently, I was hardly part of any big wood events, but this year it was ON! We even had to cut down a tree on our own. It was a ca. 50-year-old beech tree and as one of our closest friends is a (female) ranger, she cut it down for us.

the landing

After overcoming some start difficulties, Jana performed wonders with her chain saw. She knew exactly how and where to cut in order to let the tree fall where she intended it to: in the middle of the path. I was buzzing with anticipation and then the signal came: “Tree falling!” and like in slow motion the tree touched the earth, blowing dust and leaves in the air that would stand still and then join the slow motion on their way back to the ground. The sky was bright, sun was shining through the trees and we had a tree to take away from the path.

We were three women who had to make the tree disappear until dusk. We took off the branches you could not use for fire wood, we divided the tree in pieces, carried the pieces into our van and drove them to a place where we later can cut them into fitting pieces for the oven.

Better get to work!

It was hard physical labor, but it actually made me feel good. Out in the fresh air, working under time pressure, I had a real feeling of hunger. I generally eat irregularly and unhealthy, but here my stomach told me to eat. We had some bread and some typical German sausage, but no knife, so we broke the bread and ate the sausage separately and it was the most delicious meal I had in a very long time. The work grounded me and cleared my head. Suddenly I was one step closer to an important decision I have to make. I have a tendency to over-think stuff and working with my mom and Jana showed me that happiness really only depends on very few factors. To me doing things on my own, putting some sweat into them is a very fulfilling activity.

So, how much did your Saturday contribute to your own happiness?


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