By Clint Younts.
I don’t know about all y’all, but after a long, hectic week of work, a man needs some way to unwind and relieve the stress. After a week of battling heavy traffic and terrible texting drivers on the way to my job, I’m stressed before I even clock in at work. I can’t imagine how stressful it might be if I had to drive into Austin every day and had to deal with thousands of wackadoodles driving up and down I-35. The drive to Drippin’ used to be easy ten years ago, but with the population explosion in northern Hays County, there is twice the number of cars on the road, and most of those vehicles carry folks who have no idea where the turn indicator is located.
Luckily my main job isn’t extremely demanding, but in combination with my other three jobs, I can develop a little stress from time to time. I know there are lots of folks who have more stressful jobs, have problems at home and just aren’t real happy. Been there, done that. I don’t know how they relieve stress, but I have numerous ways to blow off steam, and I am willing to share my secrets of having peace of mind.
First of all, I am blessed to have a loving family and live on 70 acres of ranchland in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Just sitting out on the deck beneath towering oaks and elm trees, listening to birds chirp and squirrels chatter, I can easily relax and unwind. Toss in a cooler of cold beer or one of Maw’s famous margaritas, it is pert near impossible to retain any stress. Heck, after two or three margaritas, it’s dang near impossible to retain any coherent thought, let alone any stress.
Having several acres of pastureland enables me to relieve stress in another manner that’s not only relaxing but has the appearance of hard labor. I can climb aboard my Ford tractor and mow the weeds in my pasture for hours, listening to country music from my iPod and letting my idle brain roam free like an unbridled mustang. Several of my Crow’s Nest columns were hatched while I was mowing down weeds and dried up wildflowers, inhaling diesel fumes and manure dust. With a tiny part of my mind keeping the tractor on course, the rest of my brain goes into a semi-vegetative state, chilling to Zac Brown and Kenny Chesney until some wacky idea sprouts from a fertile bed of imagination. From there, the creative part of my brain goes into overdrive while the rest of my mind remains in a stress-free hibernation. Now y’all have some idea how I’ve come up with such foolishness that appears in your newspaper twice a month.
Although operating my tractor does an excellent job of relieving stress, mowing my yard on my lawn tractor is also satisfying. Since there are more obstacles to steer around in my yard, like Maw’s flowerbeds and our grandkids’ playscapes, I have to pay more attention to driving, but it is still very relaxing. Plus, there is nothing more satisfying or tastier than that first cold beer you get after you finish mowing the yard. What’s more relaxing than drinking a cold beer and looking out at a freshly manicured yard?
Now sometimes stress builds up, and the drought has caused my tractor and mower to enter early retirement. When the summer heats up and even a frozen margarita can’t cool my jets, I have another secret to relieving stress: Road trip! We’ll head on down to Port Aransas for two or three days of doing absolutely nuthin’ but sitting on the beach with toes in the sand and fingers wrapped around a cold beer. Nothing brushes stress off my shoulders like a salty sea breeze. This is another location where wacky ideas for my column emerge. Stretched out on a lawn chair, watching the waves roll in, listening to Zac Brown and Jimmy Buffett, I let my mind float like a chunk of seaweed beyond the breakers until some wild idea springs up like a summer squall. I’ll swap my Silver Bullet for a black ink pen and start writing in a battered, well-journeyed notebook.
You know, I don’t really get all that stressed out any more. Life’s too short to let little things get me down. Sometimes, I have a rough week at work, and sometimes I get a request to write a column with a deadline of 4 days, but I don’t get all bent out of shape. I don’t have to have a reason to sit out on the Crow’s Nest and watch antelope graze in the backyard. I don’t really have to be troubled to get on my tractor and drive in circles for four or five hours. We have gone to the beach in the dead of winter and it had nothing to do with relieving stress. A few years ago, I realized something; tranquility is a state of mind, and I have acquired a free pass.
