I had never been much of a television watcher and now between sky gazing, watching the wildlife, chopping firewood and driving to a nearby marina for laundry and groceries, I seldom even followed the news. Friends chastised me saying that it was important that we all know what is going in the world. 

When I told them that I sometimes watched Royal Canadian Air Farce or This Hour has 22 Minutes, they expressed concern that I wasn’t getting the facts. I countered that maybe I was.

As the cabin was not really winterized I would need a lot of firewood for the stove that provided the main source of heating. So I ordered the firewood and headed out to the hardware store to buy myself an axe.

Upon finding the axe aisle my eyes were immediately drawn to a pretty axe with a red head and a yellow handle. But noticing that there seemed to be a surprisingly large selection of axes I spent some time trying to figure out why there were so many.

Deciding that the axes came in different handle lengths and various axe head weights I tried several until I felt I knew which handle length and head weight was right for me. Then I went back to the pretty one that had first caught my eye. Yup perfect handle length and head weight for me.

I had developed bursitis in my right shoulder and could barely move my arm away from my body. Though the pain was bearable, the inconvenience was enormous. Heating the cabin required two or three large armloads of firewood each day.

Having only one functioning arm meant carrying in the firewood one piece at a time which stretched a 5 minute job into almost an hour as part of the process was putting down the one piece of firewood, to open the heavy sliding glass door, which had to be closed between each trip in order to prevent having rodents as roommates.

A woman I had recently met had come by for a visit. As she was preparing to leave, I was thinking that the logical thing to do was to ask her to carry in an armload of firewood for me. My conditioning said, “But you have just met her, but she may not want to carry in firewood, but she’s not really dressed for the job, etc. “

When I finally asked her if she would carry in the firewood, she said of course. Later I thought, no wonder my life has tended to be difficult at times. I have been operating under the illusion that I have to do everything for myself.