Two nights ago I sat at my computer and worked on my next book when suddenly I heard a loud noise from outside. I rushed downstairs and sat that an enormous branch had broken off from the massive tree on my lawn. Thankfully, no one was hurt. With the sun having set my family and I came inside and I tried not to think about how much money it would cost to have the debris taken away.

Yesterday when I went on my morning run, I surveyed the damage more and started thinking of which companies to call about having the tree removed. And that’s when the rush of worry surged over me: As I write this, we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. Cases of the coronavirus are going up exponential in my county (as high as 378% over the last month), I was recently laid off from my job, and now I had a massive tree limb on my lawn.

I went running, and I worried about how I was going to pay for the removal of the damaged tree limb. There are times when all the worry, anxiety, and fear surge up and I feel like a little kid again trapped in the alcoholic family I grew up. Even though it’s been made years since I lived in that environment, there are certain triggers that cause me to worry. Financial fears are one of them. When I worry about money, I’m reminded of the difficult times I grew up as a kid. There were times when I didn’t know where my mom was going to get the money to pay the bills. Thankfully, my grandparents took us in during our hour of need.

When I came home from running, I cleaned up and went back to work on my book. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and our neighbor greeted us to say that he would help us with his chainsaw and that he happened to have brought home his large truck from work. My wife, kids, and I donned our masks and went outside to carry all the broken pieces of the tree into our neighbor’s truck. He cut the pieces and as a team we all helped up and put the debris into the truck. The work took an hour and a half in the hot sun and we were exhausted afterward, but we did it.

If you’re going through a difficult time and feel like it’s too much, be willing to accept help. When I am stressed and worried, I often close up and have tunnel vision because I’m dealing with the fear of how I’m going to get through the difficult time.

For today, is there some struggle that you’re dealing with and are afraid? If you were to ask for help, could you receive it? Or are there people willing to help you, but maybe you’re not open to it?

When life is too much, maybe we need to take a step back and see that maybe we’re not as alone as we had thought. Others are willing to help—if only we’re willing to accept it.

Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out my other posts in my Let Go and Be Free blog.