creative stress

Am I the only person whose list of things you would like to do, but are under no schedule to actually have done, stress them out?

Today was a good example of this. I wanted to get to the doctor for a follow-up, because I should have done it more than a week ago, but was on vacation in Yosemite. I did not get hold of the doctor’s office yesterday; however, I only tried once and that, during their office lunch hour. But I should back up to the very start of this cockamamie thinking. I woke with a headache because I had only one small cup of coffee the previous morning – or I slept on my sore shoulder again. A cup of coffee and not taking the Excedrin actually got me going. I felt that my spouse off to work, I should fold the laundry, but chose instead to start the day by walking Dexter and Comet. Instead of going around the neighborhood, I thought they should get a real walk since I had plans for the rest of the day (my to-do list). I became irritated that I chose to drive (to one of my favored walking spots) by the main road, in traffic, as I knew it would be, instead of the other route. It cost me about seven extra minutes.

I started yesterday painting the living room, which first required taping one wall, finding a YouTube video to remind me how to remove a rollerblinds (2 seconds of effort once I knew), and getting additional painting supplies from the big box hardware store. Then, perhaps because I gave voice to the thought that I needed to get some milestone – paint, that is – accomplished, I also continued to paint (primer) the kitchen cabinets which only a third had been primed a couple weeks earlier. I was fixated on opening a paint can with a particular screwdriver I had used yesterday, and in not recalling where I laid it down, I decided to go do something else for a while.

I was offered to contribute, together with other veterans in my church congregation, some thoughts next Sunday, so I used part of this time today to start putting it together. And after a first read, I again decided to set this aside for now. To relax my mind, I went out to water and tend to my roses and other plants in the front yard. It put me in a better frame of mind. I was going to eat something this afternoon as I had forgotten mostly about lunch, but recalled that I was having an outpatient medical procedure performed tomorrow, and needed to consume only liquids for the next 24 hours.

The best thing I could have done for the last hour, is to do what I am presently doing. Reading blogs. Writing a blog post. Refocusing on what is not in my control – and what is under my control.

The world continues to spin on its axis without input from me. Family drama, daily chores, housekeeping and maintenance get accomplished. Until there is an emergency I should not create stressful situations in its place. Relax. Each day has enough to worry about. Yet God has already taken care of me.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6: 25 -34 (NIV)