Deep-Rooted Support

So I had an odd Monday. I’ve written before about the trickiness of Mondays for me—I feel a lot of pressure to get things done. Start of the week and all, I guess. This particular Monday was a strangely-split day: the first half was victorious, in which I knocked out something I've been procrastinating for weeks. The second half was a vicious struggle, when a plumbing emergency struck. But I persevered, and I did so because of great support systems.

I was initially going to write this blog about the victorious first half. I'd been putting off this monkey on my back for weeks, telling myself it was too large and too difficult and just impossible to start. But I'd finally had enough, and I told myself that I was just gonna try to do it, and the outcome didn't really matter. Worst case scenario, I wouldn't be able to complete it and I'd hire someone else to do it. But, hallelujah, I actually knocked it out pretty quickly! I was flying high. I saw unfolding in my mind an easy blog about the energy that comes from finally getting a tough thing off your list, and my encouragement for you to draw on my success as motivation to unsaddle any monkeys you might be carrying around.

But my success gave me motivation to tackle even more that I'd been procrastinating: turning the water shut-offs around the house on and off again to keep them limber. Well, apparently the washer cold-water supply line was brittle, because it sprang a leak.

So there I was, at 8 o’clock at night, in my basement, with no running water, laundry left to do, and bedtime creeping up. Talk about stressful.

Thanks to great support systems, though, I made a call to a loved one, got some clutch advice, and headed out in the middle of a raging thunderstorm to buy a part. Menards at 9 p.m. on a Monday night is not a great place to get speciality parts help, let me tell you. But once again, support systems to the rescue: I made quick friends with two middle-aged buddies prowling the plumbing aisles for project parts (they really need to have their own podcast), and they helped me find the right part, which I got installed back at home without much fuss and had the water up and running again—no leaks this time—pretty quickly. Yet another loved one was texting me during this whole ordeal, lending moral support.

The next day I walked by this beautiful tree (above) that embodied those vital support systems. If we reach out, stretch our roots wide and deep like this tree did, we can stay in contact with nourishment and support and can weather whatever wind or storm kicks up around us.

So the next time your Monday—or any day—goes crazy, consider reaching out for support. You might find your own plumber duo just when you need them.