karenulijohn

As a lifetime worrier, the title of this post has become my new mantra.  Harvey’s brush with melanoma and the ensuing surgeries, tests, and treatments, have illustrated how little effect worrying really has.  Despite the many times I have tried to overcome my worries, I have never really been able to conquer them, until now.  Sort of.

Harvey has decided that several things need to be done to the house, and he needs to get them done in case the medication “lays him low.”  So, this morning he decided to paint the trim on the front of the house including the shutters and the overhang.  I wasn’t worried until he needed to get the tall ladder out so that he could reach above the garage door.  I calmly asked if he would like me to stand at the bottom of the ladder and hold his leg.  “Why would you do that?” he asked.  “Well, in case you fall,” I replied.  He pointed out that if a 200 lb man falls from the height of a ladder onto a 130 lb woman, it is likely that both would be injured, and the woman might possibly be “flattened.”  I could not argue with the truth of his logic, so I giggled and wandered off down the driveway.  As I began to walk to the left toward Overland, where the homes back onto the golf course, I wondered if perhaps I should not go that way because I might get hit on the head with a stray golf ball.  Of course, if I started off to the right onto Stag’s Leap, I could be hit by a car swerving round the corner.

Hold on!  Take a deep breath.  “Worrying doesn’t change the outcome”…