A Reminder to Stop Worrying...

What is truth? The life you think about when you are depressed, stressed, and sad or the life you think about when you are rested, relaxed and happy. Same event, different attitude can change your vision of reality amazingly. Last night I had a dream which I think was a wake up call to stop worrying about things that are not my responsibility and over which I have no control and know nothing about.

I was tending a baby (I thought) and it turned into the size of a finger and rolled into a fold in the covers and could not be found. I took the bed covers carefully apart and yet could not find the baby. I was distraught and fearful that the baby would smother or get hurt because I was clearly negligent. In my dream there were other children in the house but I did not involve them in the search so they would not know how negligent I had been.

In my dream a friend came to the house and I confessed that I had lost this baby who I had been tending. She wisely suggested that I may not have been tending the baby at all. Maybe I only thought I was tending the baby, which was not my job anyway. Maybe I only imagined I was responsible for the baby. We could find out by calling the mother.

Just then the mother walked in with the baby. I had worried myself into a frenzy over something that was not even true. How many times have I worried over something that I had no control over and may or may not have been reality.

I remember so well that last time I saw Marta, my friend from college. We were discussing something I was concerned over. She asked me if there was anything I could do to change the situation. There was not.  "Then you have got to stop worrying about it,” she said.

Which leads me to the email Maria had passed on today in which we are encouraged to turn our worries over to God and ask Him to watch over our families. Good advice.

There are so many good quotes on useless worrying. These are just a few.

I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then, whenever doubt, anxiety or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal - and soon they'll forget my number. ~Edith Armstrong

You can't wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. ~Pat Schroeder

Heavy thoughts bring on physical maladies; when the soul is oppressed, so is the body. ~Martin Luther


He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. ~Montaigne, Essays, 1588


Love looks forward, hate looks back, anxiety has eyes all over its head. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. ~Theodore N. Vail 

And a real favorite:

For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe. ~Author Unknown

Or I could buy myself some Worry Dolls!

According to Guatemalan legend, worry dolls have the ability to remove worries from sleeping children. Children tell one worry to each doll when they go to bed at night and place the dolls under their pillow. In the morning the dolls have taken their worries away.

This could be an excellent addition to my Doll Collection, ha.