Stress Points

Many years ago, when we were pregnant with the baby who would be Buster, it was another stressful time in our lives.

Buds had just started his own company (the precursor to Juice), he was traveling for that company (Brother Z had connected him to his first contacts for first contracts, so Buds was flying out to Virginia for that.), we were building a house, and we had a toddler + pregnant.

To save money on the new house, we planned on laying the floor in the upstairs ourselves. I managed to do much of it, but still needed Buds to help when he was home when he could.

It was a Sunday. He was flying out that afternoon. Monkey was hanging out with my parents in their new house just down the road, and Buds and I were trying to get the flooring done in the office.

We had two pieces left to lay, but they were in the closet so tight and tricky.

Buds wanted to stop.

I was gobsmacked.

How could he want to stop when it was so close to the finish?! It made zero sense to me.

From his kneeling position on the floor, he looked up at me and said, “Because I’d like to spend some time with Monkey before I’m gone for a week.”

It was like a firecracker going off in my heart.

That moment is frozen in my brain because here we are, 17 years later, and we’re still those same people, and though we’ve learned so much from each other, stressful times drop us back to our basics.

I thought of it again on Friday of last week.

Juice gave everyone the day off to refresh and rest; they wanted people to engage with a beloved hobby, try out a new one, spend time with friends and family, do whatever they needed to do to help restore themselves.

Early morning found Buds and I in the garage, staring at each other across boxes.

I wanted to pack, sort, organize, pack. All day.

Buds was glad to do those things, too, but he wanted us to load up the bikes and go have a joyful bike ride together.

I was glad to do the bike ride-at the end of the day-if there was any time left.

After some discussion and a few tears, we did some packing and organizing, then we went on a rainy, glorious bike ride, got some lunch, then more packing and organizing.

In the midst of moving anxiety, it was a perfect, refreshing day.

Seems likes this guy still has lessons I need to learn after nearly 30 years.