We carry our worries and troubles with us. Even though we understand that it does us no good, it is human to worry, and not so easy to compartmentalise life. It would be wonderful if we had a way of hanging up our troubles and picking them up when we need to deal with them, rather than carrying them with us all the time.

A very dear friend shared a lovely story that that puts this in perspective.

The carpenter a man had hired, had finished a rough day at the job. He had a flat tire, his electric saw stopped working and his truck wouldn’t start. The man offered to drop the carpenter home and on the way the carpenter sat in stony silence. On arriving, the carpenter invited the man in his home to meet his family. Just before entering, the carpenter touched the branches of a small tree with both hands.

When the door opened, the carpenter underwent an amazing transformation. He was smiling, hugged his kids, and kissed his wife. While leaving, the man was curious about what he had seen the carpenter do with the tree. ‘Oh that’, replied the carpenter, ‘is my trouble tree. I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but they don’t belong in my house. So every day, I hang them on the tree in the night and pick them up next morning. The funny thing is, the next morning, there aren’t as many as I remember putting there.’

When we realise that the shadow of our worries can affect the very people we deeply love, and when we truly understand the importance of family, and sometimes the effect it can have on young impressionable children, we learn to hang up our troubles.

We know we cannot deal with our troubles all the time. When we realise that though we say we are working towards a better quality life, we are actually compromising the very thing we are working towards by carrying our worry all the time, we learn to hang up our troubles.

A fatigued mind and body is not capable of facing up to the challenges of life. When we discover our physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual strength by nourishing ourselves every day, we learn to hang up our troubles.

When we are rooted in understanding, faith, and discipline and truly live in the now, it is not that our troubles will magically go away. It is just that we would have discovered our own trouble tree to hang up our troubles on.

(Picture – Trinity College, Dublin)