Sherry Sterling
Dear friends,
Would you join me for a thought experiment?
Imagine holding a fresh-picked lemon in your hands. Notice the bright yellow skin, feel its texture. Smell the faint citrusy notes coming from the stem spot.
Now imagine cutting open the lemon. See the yellow flesh and the juice beading. Notice the lemony scent is even stronger now. Imagine cutting a wedge and lifting it to your mouth, inhaling the sour scent even deeper.
Now imagine bringing the wedge to your tongue, wrapping your lips around it, and pulling in the juice. Are your lips puckering with the thought? Are you salivating?
Our thoughts are so powerful that we can experience something as if it’s happening, even if it isn’t what’s actually happening at the moment.
We can actively use this to remember or anticipate pleasant times. Or, with our natural tendency towards negativity bias, we can get pulled into worries.
Brene Brown, in her book Atlas of the Heart, writes: “Worrying and anxiety go together, but worry is not an emotion; it’s the thinking part of anxiety.”
Today’s gospel reading is the one where Jesus says to not worry about the details of life, reminding us that the birds of the air are fed and the lilies of the field are clothed in beauty, through no actions of their own. That God provides.
“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
—Matthew 6:27
I’ve meditated on that truth for years—that worry doesn’t really change the future. I may think I’m preparing for all possible outcomes, but planning is different than perseverating.
In planning, I think ahead to what might happen and how to best prepare for it. It guides my taking action.
In perseverating, I return, over and over, to the same fear-laden thoughts and end up paralyzed in inaction.
The thing is, every time I worry, I’m experiencing the feared-for outcome as if it’s happening now. Just like the thought experiment with the lemon. So the actual outcome happens once, but through my ruminating, I experience dread multiple times.
When I feel anxious, I’m practicing to see it as an alert to get my attention. And then I can turn the outcome over to God, remembering that I can’t add even a single hour to my life by worrying.
Peace and love,
—Sherry