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Writer's pictureMary Maciel Pearson

The complexity of a task


Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life.


~ Susan David


Parkinson's Law is the idea that the complexity of a task expands to fill the time allotted to its completion.


Our son Christian has been working from the cottage since July. The lease in his apartment in Toronto is up this month, so we moved him out Saturday.

Although I am well aware that I should not ruminate about the future, the complexity of the task was weighing me down the few days approaching the move.

We have moved a lot - never a walk in the park. But, to do so in the middle of the winter, navigating remote cottage roads with a cargo van neither of us had much experience driving, would be a challenge.


Due to recent thaw and freeze conditions, our long sloping driveway is a slippery mess.


Although my husband and son believed it would be no problem driving the oversized vehicle down to the house to unload, I was uncertain.


Moving day


On a snowy Saturday morning, Christian and I drove to Orillia, a fifty-minute drive, to pick up the truck he'd leased. We left the car in the parking lot and headed south to Toronto.

My husband, who works in Oakville and lives there during the week, met us at the apartment and helped move the contents while I packed what was left and cleaned.


Christian and I were back on the road heading north before evening. It was dark when we arrived at the fork in the road a few hundred metres from the cottage.


There is a higher road that slopes down to the lower. Both converge once again at our cottage. We choose which path will be easier to navigate based on snow plough and weather conditions.


As snow thaws and freezes, this junction turns into an ice rink. Having ended up on the snowbank once last year, I learned that this is a driving hazard, no matter how cautious one is.


I prayed that the heavy cargo van could navigate it easily. We aimed for the higher road, but it was not to be. We tried the lower, but the van would not cooperate.


After several failed attempts, I thought we might need a tow truck. But my son, ever the optimist, believed we could manage.


I walked to the cottage to get fireplace cinders. We spread them in front and behind the wheels. We had no de-icing salt - or so we thought.

Christian interpreted this challenge as universal guidance, a warning not to attempt to drive down our driveway - wise for his years.

With some clever maneuvering, he managed to get the van moving. We parked at the top of the hill. Then he and I had to carry all his belongings down the slippery slope into the cottage - a daunting task to say the least.

We were exhausted. But, weighing upon us was how we would manage to get the cargo van, which was now parked on a slippery upward slope at the road, moving again in the morning.

Christian recalled having seen some de-icing salt under the cottage. Going out with a flashlight, he found it. Tradespeople must have left it during the build. We placed some around the tires.

The fun is not over

Sunday at 7:00 AM, Christian was already working to move the van. He ended up with a tire buried deep in a snowbank and broke a shovel trying to widen the road.


Fortunately, a snowbank is a soft landing - no harm done. I went out to help. With a garden spade, we broke the ice to clear a wider path on the road. It was an intense workout. Who needs the gym?


At this point, I had been fasting for over thirty-eight hours. I have learned that we do not digest food well when stressed. We also flood the body with sugar. Best to use it up.

I saw the move as an opportunity to access energy stores to fuel my activity. After all, I naturally forget about food when I have a lot on my plate ;)

Clearing ice and snow and doing a seven-point turn with this large cube van, Christian got back onto the lower road and beyond the ice rink at the junction. Neither of us was hungry at this point. We were back on the road at 8:30 AM to return the vehicle.


Again driving conditions were subpar, but fifty minutes later, we were in the parking lot of the rental place.


I asked Christian for the car keys. I wanted to move a few things we were donating from the van to the car. He said he didn’t have them.


He had driven the car down the day before, so I assumed they were in his pocket. He checked; no sign. OH MY GOSH! There was no way we were driving the cargo van back to the cottage to get them.


I checked my purse and pockets. Christian helped. But, we could not find the keys.

Before leaving that morning, I had asked him to change out of his sweat pants. They were dirty from cinders. Grudgingly, he did. Maybe they were there. Why did I ask him to change?


We decided that Christian would go in to return the van. I would get an Uber.

But before going in, my son asked if I had any hidden pockets. That is when I remembered him handing me the keys the day before. My thought process was to put them somewhere safe lest they fall out. Zipped up in a hidden pocket were the keys.


Again the universe had our back!


Maybe had I not been fasting, I would have had better recollection. Cortisol, the stress hormone, wreaks havoc on our memory and cognitive function. I likely would also not have asked him to ignore the GPS and make a wrong turn on our way home.

A victory dance


The reality however is that in order to make progress in life, we have to embrace discomfort.


~ Sunday Adelaja

Christian and I were doing a victory dance when all was said and done. It was fun to embrace discomfort with someone who perseveres in the face of adversity and sees every challenge as an opportunity for growth. Between trigger and response, his calmness was admirable. He never lost his cool.


My fast lasted forty-four hours. I shed a few pounds of winter weight. (Please avoid unsupervised prolonged fasts if you have blood sugar issues.) Epsom salts baths and infrared sauna helped in our recovery.


The move reminded us that less is more. Christian hopes to reduce his belongings, have the cottage as a home base, and do his job anywhere in the world as the opportunity arises.



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