On October 23, 2024, I dedicated my entire day to finishing my wife's sister's fence repair. There were two entire panels of this wood fence that I was going to put up. I started the day out by going to Lowe's to grab the single 4x4 that I was short yesterday when I did the majority of the repairs.
A whole day on the fence, and a call in the middle of it
I also had a call for Internet Computer Protocol. A project was going to talk to me about their biggest updates, and they paid $99 on my website at jerrybanfield.com to talk to me. How cool is that, that I was able to fix this fence while I was on a WhatsApp audio call? I absolutely love how flexible my work is on a day like this.
I also love that my body is so strong that I'm able to be out in the sun doing this fencing repair in Florida all day, and in my experience I'm not going to sunburn at all.
Listening to "Broken" while I worked
For my entertainment today, I started listening to a book named Broken, which was about a girl's very tragic and difficult childhood. From my point of view, she chose to incarnate with a mother that she could tell was a liar, a cheat, a thief, and would be quite a rough ride. And then this stepfather gets brought into the picture who's abusing her. It's shocking how the authorities seem to take the stepfather's side, and they set her up for such a rough life that even translated into a difficult adulthood, as you can imagine as well.
I put all day into this book. I've listened to several books like this because it helps me have perspective on my own life. I see a lot of people who struggle, thinking their life is so tragic and their childhood was so bad. And I listen to a book like this, and yeah, I had a little bit of my own traumas in childhood, but it's nothing compared to this book. My childhood looks so easy and simple. That's why I like listening to these things — and to have empathy for other people, too, especially if people have had it worse than me, so to speak. I want to try and cut them some slack.
From frustration to a free fence repair
I really am feeling fantastic putting this fence back together today for my wife's sister. And I'm amazed how last week I was feeling frustration towards her, and it turned around into me offering to do a fence repair that somebody else would have probably charged at least a thousand dollars to fix. I've done it for free, and even bought the materials, because I want to.
It even is funny to me, like everybody's very thankful — my wife and her sister and her parents, who we all live within two blocks of each other. Everybody comes over, and I love all the attention I'm getting. At this point, this is something that some people would look at as a total chore: "this sucks, and I'm going to spend all this time doing this." But this has been fun to me. What I've wanted out of this is lots of attention, and I don't even need anything else.
Why a chore felt like the most joyful thing I could do
It's amazing how doing the right kind of service work, or helping in a way that's joyful, for one person might feel like a job that they just have to get through to get to the end of the day and get their money. Whereas for me, it's like, I did this. This was the most joyous thing I could do today. I got so into repairing this fence, and so determined to finish it by the end of the day and wrap this project up, that I didn't even get to film any of my crypto videos, and I missed my AA meeting as well.
I did take a break to go to my massage, though, which was wonderful. I love talking to my two massage therapists that I see. I love the relaxation that comes from the massage, and I love the attention — just having a person massage my body and pay attention to it for an hour and a half really satisfies me. You could argue it's an asset or a defect, however you want, but I love getting attention. Other people I see, like my wife, do not love getting attention as much, which is why our relationship works. I'm so glad that 10 years ago I found massages. It's just really helpful to leave me feeling like I've got what I need.
Because when I've got all my own needs met, I'm totally focused on getting out there and serving others. I think that is a world I want to live in — where we have our needs met, we can go out there and lift a hand to each other, and we're a lot more understanding and loving for other people when we've got our own needs met. If you like spending a day like this with me, you can watch more of these in my Life playlist, and it ties right into why I believe helping others is the secret to a good day.