Worry

You know how some people just like to worry?

Maybe “like” isn’t exactly the right term - but you know what I mean. Some people seem to worry about shit all the time.

My dad’s mother, my MawMaw, was the undisputed heavyweight champion of worrying. I remember coming to visit in her final years when my dad lived with her. If he weren’t home, she’d sit looking out the window wringing her hands in worry over what terrible fate had befallen him.

She was certain any car she spotted in the distance was his, and as each one passed the worry grew.

A stranger, pulling in the driveway to turn around, was surely arriving with news of my father having been in a terrible accident.

Thunder or lightning was plain evidence that he was stranded in a storm, and distant sirens were certainly carrying him to the emergency room.

Of course, by this point, Alzheimer’s & dementia had begun to advance. But, while this amplified her natural tendency to worry, the fact is she spent most of her life worried about one thing or another.

I believe she was born worried.

I know people like this now.

Constantly pacing the floor and worried about one thing or another.

Never quite able to get settled.

This morning a friend asked me what I worry about and after thinking about it for the better part of the day, I’ve struggled to come up with an answer.

Honestly, I don’t worry very much.

Do things concern me?

Of course.

I’m concerned whether I spend enough time with my kids.

I’m concerned whether I’ll make enough money to retire while I can still walk,

I’m concerned whether my business will survive the shifting real estate market.

I”m concerned whether my heart might give out before I’m 50.

But I’m not really worried about any of that.

Because, really, what’s the point?

Worry is like a horse’s blinders. You’re only able to focus on the one thing in front of you that you’re worried about. Meanwhile, you miss everything else, good or bad, that’s going on around you.

Like the guy who’s so worried about leads for his business that he can’t put down his phone and never really sees his kid’s football games.

Or the woman, worried about what people think of her lifestyle, that drags her family into massive debt buying houses, cars, and jewelry that she really can’t afford.

Worry can make us irrational, even going so far as to keep us from working on a solution to whatever it is that has us worried in the first place which causes us to worry about it even more.

Talk about a vicious cycle.

People often say that everything will be alright and, most times, that’s true.

You just have to work on it instead of letting it worry you to death.