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Cheryl Hughes; Let's Schedule This

I heard an interesting concept on NPR last week.  Someone has recently written a book on worry, and she suggested during this unprecedented time of stress over the pandemic, race relations and the volatile political climate, we might consider scheduling time to worry.  She said you shouldn’t need more than 30 minutes per day, and if you schedule your worry, you won’t let it permeate every waking hour of your day.  Being a worry wort from way back, I decided to give this cutting-edge concept a go.

On Saturday, I wrote down a list of things I wanted to accomplish that day then at the bottom of the list, I included Worry.  My list went like this: Clean windows in Nikki’s old room, Wash those curtains, Wash my bedspread, Wash my kitchen rugs, Clean out the gutter by the maple tree, Insert gutter guard in same gutter, Worry.  I was quite pleased with myself as I read my list.

I put my bedspread into the washer then headed up to Nikki’s old room to clean those windows.  Those windows present a particular challenge because as the house settled, the windows popped the locks open and left gaps that wasps, dirt daubers and Japanese lady bugs set up shop in.  I pushed, pulled and pried until I was able to remove the storm windows.  They were beyond Windex and had to be soaked in the bathtub.  

As I cleaned the standard windows, I began to worry about the current political situation, but quickly caught myself, reminding me that this was window-washing time, not worry time, and I would have to wait till worry time to worry about the election.  It took two and a half hours to clean those windows and get them back together, plus an extra 30 minutes, with Garey’s help, to get the locks to fasten and hold.

My bedspread finished washing, so I put the curtains in to wash, and after slipping and sliding on walnuts down the incline to the clothesline, I pulled the cover from the laundry basket.  The bedspread is a king size, and it took every ounce of strength I had to haul the wet, cotton spread onto the line.   I started worrying about not following my daughter’s admonition to start taking a Vitamin D supplement so I wouldn’t end up with countless broken bones like her Aunt Charlotte.  I reminded myself that this was laundry time and I would have to wait until worry time to worry about broken bones.

Back in the house, I put the curtains in the dryer then added the kitchen rugs to the washer.  According to my schedule, I was way past my lunch time.  I ate some left-over pizza while reading a few pages from THE WOMAN WHO SMASHED CODES (by Jason Fagone) in order to keep my mind from worrying about how far behind schedule I currently was.

After lunch, I hung out the kitchen rugs to dry, admired my clean bedspread flapping in the breeze, took the curtains from the dryer and hung them from the curtain rods over the pristine windows in Nikki’s room then stood back and admired my work.  I have always found it helpful to take time to admire what you have accomplished no matter how far behind schedule you are, and I was waaaaaaaay behind schedule.

It was time to tackle the gutter by the maple tree.  There was enough dirt inside that gutter to grow a small herb garden, and that would have been far easier than cleaning it out, but I soldiered on.  I placed a ladder against the eave of the front porch and climbed up on the roof with a bucket, a roll of gutter guard, a metal scraper and some wire cutters.  I dug and scraped and cut off old gutter guard, carefully scooting my bottom along the edge of the roof.  I remembered seeing a notice from AAA on the kitchen table telling me I hadn’t renewed for this year.  “Now, I know I did that,” I thought.  I began worrying that my check had gotten lost in the mail.  I quickly reminded myself that this was gutter-cleaning time, not worry time.  It was almost dark by the time I had fed one roll of gutter guard through the metal trough, so I figured I’d better come on down.  Garey had come in from hunting and had put steaks on the grill, and they smelled so good!

After dinner, I reminded myself that it was time to worry, but I hit a snag.  I was too tired to worry.  I fell asleep watching TV instead.  I’ve reached the conclusion that scheduling worry just won’t work for me.  I gave it a shot, but if I’m going to give worry its due, I’m going to have to make it a priority and put it at the top of the list.

 

 

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