If I say, "We went to the ranch this weekend," I fear that many of you will draw mental images of people in a field, watching cows. When I say, "We went to the ranch this weekend," you should see a class A-frame house nestled into a thicket of trees. You should picture a stone patio, a pool and an outdoor fireplace. You should think, "Not the Ritz, but boy, that's one hell of a weekend home."

So this weekend - we went to the ranch. When Blake and I wanted to leave, we found ourselves locked in - an interesting predicament. While we waited for those that knew how to help us exit the property to return from whatever they were doing, we sat on the tailgate of the truck in the middle of a road essentially in the middle of nowhere. Silence folds around you like a warm blanket.

For the time that we sat there, I explained to Blake that I like going to the ranch because it's the only place for me where worries don't exist. The ranch doesn't care how I pay my bills. The ranch doesn't care if I have to give up going out to lunch every day with my work friends so that I'll be able to go to dinner with my friends on the weekends. The ranch doesn't care that I feel like I'm constantly struggling, that I'm scared a lot of the time, and that at the end of many days, I feel like I've done nothing but fight battle after battle, just to keep my head above water.

Instead, the ranch takes your problems when you drive across the cattle guard. It puts them in an air-tight box on the top shelf of a closet, and it holds them there until you're ready to go, giving you all the freedom that you need to run and play like a kid - laughing and sharing stories, spending time doing nothing with your very favorite people in the entire world. It lets you enjoy life. It encourages you to enjoy life.

Tell me, friends - how do you unwind?