Things That Make Me Feel Empowered

The roads here get icy and slick in a way that is far worse than anyone would intuitively think. People can slip on flat road. Snow chains are not 100% infallible but they're close. We currently have several inches of ice on our road, I maintain about 1/3 of mile of narrow road from the pavement up to our house. Yesterday, someone got stuck on our road, and I had to drive in reverse, uphill, on ice for about 250 yards. No problem thanks to the chains.

Snow chains are a metaphor for preventing or solving your own problems.

Making it so we can drive safely, with chains in the case of certain storms, is just taking care of business.

Almost anyone who lifts weights will admit to a slight sense of apprehension beginning a set of deadlifts. The moment you know you're not going to get injured is a real boost.

Working on a fire, wildland or structure, can take hours. After a time you feel a sense of exhaustion that reminds you that you're working hard on something important and then hopefully you can find what you need to in order to keep working.

Another form of taking care of your business. Yes, when you're younger it is logical to have some debt but getting to a point of no debt is very empowering.

If you've ever used a saw, you know.

Doing something for your future self.

Mid-50's is well past the age where people often get on the prescription treadmill to "manage" the things that "just go with getting older" as well as <harsh comment coming> antidepressants. Not having to take meds chronically is a validation that the things about diet and exercise that I believe in and do are working for me.

I first clued into the idea of no prescriptions ten years ago or so on a medical call. The patient was a 64 year old male who got hurt doing something on his property and he was very proud of the fact that we wasn't taking any meds and I remember thinking to myself yeah, that's impressive as hell.