What if everything in the world is taken care of and you don’t have to worry? What if there is nothing to worry about? What would you do with the time you save, and where would you preserve anguish? If you did not worry, you would be on top of the world. As it is, you hold worry to you like a talisman, like an abacus, like a card up your sleeve, as if worry props you up, protects you, keeps you safe, as if it is a bribe you give to ensure that there will be no retribution, no tragic event, no heartbreak. You hold on to worry like a cross you bear as if it will ward off what your fears portend. All the while, it augments your fears. Worry is like bloodletting, a little at a time. Why would you worry unless you thought it was a good thing to do?
Perhaps you think worry is like a song you hum, and other less desirable songs will not be heard over it. Perhaps you think worry is a palliative, some kind of blessing for you, a mock-up of fear that will bend at your will. Perhaps you worry out of habit. Perhaps it has become a way of life. Perhaps worrying is why you are tense. You wait for the other shoe to fall, even when you don’t know what the other shoe is. You just know you don’t want it, so worry becomes your rosary.
I would have you be done with worry. Worry contracts your blood vessels. Worry is a stricture. It frets your nerve endings. Worry is no good at all.
Worry has no opposite, beloveds. And worry is not your responsibility. You don’t have to take care of it, nourish it, give it cause, find reasons for it, doll it up. Worry isn’t conscientious. To harbor worry is irresponsible. It is getting caught in brambles. It is frittering away your energy, and for what? For the little sigh of relief when what you worry about does not come to pass? Have that relief now. Release yourself from worry.
If you have heretofore been a worrier, there is a cure. Stop worrying. When you catch yourself clutching your heart, look up and remind yourself that I AM, and that worry is worthless. It lurks everywhere like a shadow. What takes precedence, do you believe, worry or Me? Which would you bet on? Which would you uphold? You have a choice, beloveds. Choose now.
Has worry been a mainstay for you, a walking stick, a prop for you on the stage of life? If so, it has been a false one, a cane that folds and trips you up. It’s there with you, but it doesn’t support you.
From this moment forth, say “so long” to worry. Stick out your tongue at it. Boo it away. Worry is a bad guy. It sets off false alarms, and gets credit when what you were worrying about does not come to pass. But worry did not save you. It set off a false alarm.
You worry about something that isn’t real. For those things that will come true, worry can’t change them. It is true that someday your body will die. That is no secret. Nor is it a loss. It is just a change.
All your worries are about change. You worry about the wonderful as much as you worry about the awful. Worry says: “What if I have his love, and then he stops loving me? What if I am not equal to his love? What if I am the one who stops loving?” There isn’t anything you can’t worry about. There is nothing you have to worry about. You might as well stop playing the worry game now.