With the press of the Return key I splinter the cell borders of a spreadsheet, Quit Excel, and move on to master another task. Something simple (sort of). Uncomplicated. Time-tested.

I joked with a friend not long ago about the complexities that come with the comforts of householding. Oh, how I could long for a simpler way. Chopping wood and carrying water sounds concrete, straightforward, no heady accounting or updated software necessary.

Maybe the joke was on me, as within days, the water tank at our house malfunctioned, leaving us with no running water for 48 hours. I found myself lugging 5 gallon buckets from the working tap next door to our kitchen sink. Be careful what you wish for, I reminded myself as I heated wash water on our stove top.

These days, the water’s flowing just fine, but I still find myself grappling with the continual details required to keep our lives organized. And our world is really pretty simple, relative to most. This weekend it was apparent that I could spend all of my time at my desk, computer computing, spreadsheets auto-summing, but what I really wanted was to take a break from my mind.

The Bohemian recently fell an Ironwood tree in order to make room for coconuts. He and I hauled a truck load of the logs to our house, but they needed to be split before they cured. The wood is known to be so hard that if you wait too long, they turn stone-like, too difficult to chop.

Looks like wishes really do come true. As there I was, Excel spreadsheets and paperwork far behind. On Sunday, it was just me and the axe, splitting wood and stacking.