What Are We All So Worried About?

There was a time in my life when I didn't "feel right" if I wasn't worried about something. Whether it was if my mom was going to be okay on her cross-country flight, if my car would make it the three hour drive to see a friend at VA Tech, if I was being a good enough person to those around me, if I was doing all I could in school...I'd be worried. And if I wasn't worried, clearly there had to be something wrong and I'd find out what it was.
What a way to live life huh? After a few good kicks in the ass with some serious life stuff, I found out there really wasn't any need to worry about all the small stuff, the things you can't control or the way people percieve you.
I'd like to say that I never worry about anything, but I'd be straight up lying. I still worry about things I can't control (like an airplane flight or a client's reaction to my pitch) but it's not a consistent, deep-seeded worry anymore. I've been able to live life almost worry free and I gotta say, it's a whole lot better that way.

And who am I anyways to worry that I've got the shoes on my feet when there are kids in Africa without shoes at all??? Ok...maybe that was a little dramatic, but it's true. I woke up this morning feeling sorry for myself because I was sick, couldn't make it into work for a busy day and an important presentation, and my apartment was a disaster area. Then I turned on the news to find out that overnight Japan had experienced one of the largest earthquakes in history off their shores resulting in a tsunami that killed over 1,000 people in less than a few hours. Moreover, it was threatening the coast of California and Hawaii. A good friend of mine is in Hawaii this weekend spreading her own mother's ashes and now she has to WORRY about a tsunami? That, is a real cause for worry and a shock to the system. You stop, pray for those affected by this and then...

How quickly we move on with our lives and begin to contemplate our own worries yet again. After checking in with my friend (who is safe thank God), I resumed my own set of worries - still sick I felt horrible for not being "there" for my clients today...for taking a day to feel better instead of helping them make their work lives easier. Um...certainly not tsunami-level worry.

Why do we revert back so easily to our own little worlds and our own little lives? Living in New York has the ability to both make you feel as though you are right in the middle of everything and at the same time make you feel as though you live in a huge, crowded, taxi-full bubble. Work becomes the utmost important thing..deadlines loom and emails fling out left and right. You become absorbed with where to dine at and what new shop or museum to check out on the weekend...all the while worrying about making maybe the wrong choice. Lord forbid I head downtown instead of to the Upper West Side for brunch...

Sure, worries change from day to day, month to month, year to year. But I'd like to really stop worrying about all that stuff that doesn't really matter. I'm not sure when it started...but I'm ready for it to end. Worry as a word is even just annoying, I'm annoyed typing it over and over again in this post and so from here on out...refuse to use it or think of it!

Instead, I will leave you with images of the past few weeks in New York...images that remind me that at the end of the day...there really are more things in life to love hard and listen to and see clearly than to worry about (just one last time)...