2012, OR THE THING ABOUT WORRY IS

by Jeanne Marie

A few years ago, I was worried about something. I don’t remember what. That’s the funny thing about worry. Time erases it.

Anyway, I was worried about something…but then I walked out into the yard. It was night. An eclipse of the moon was beginning. As I stood and watched it, I couldn’t help but think how small my concern was. I was watching a phenomenon of the Universe. Something over which I had absolutely zero control. It was going to happen whether I stood and enjoyed it or not. Even if I wished for it to not happen, or wished for it to be on another day, or fretted over why it didn’t happen when the sky was without cloud, I could not change one thing about what the Universe was doing. I could, however, change what I was doing. I could stop everything, including my worrying, and simply bask in the joy of the experience and the absolute wonder of it.

I’m fond of telling others that 99% of what we worry about, never happens. And – that other 1% -- well – you will never even imagine it, never see it coming, and usually, it will break your heart. But all the worry/fear that I or another may do will never change the fact that the Universe changes. In fact, change in life is the only thing you can really count on. My fear, your fear will do nothing to cause change. It will only bind us up in a prison of our own making.

Recently I saw the movie 2012. Oh dear! It was colossal. It was stupendous. It was earthquakes and fire and death and destruction. It was “warning” us that the world will end because the planets are going to align.

I didn’t know whether it was supposed to be a horror movie or a comedy. Truly. I didn’t know.

I do know it was intended to scare me into thinking I only had two more years of life as I know it.

So what?

Even if it is true, what can I do about it? Is there really anything that I -- or any of us --can do to stop the planets from aligning? Am I truly supposed to stop all freedom, all joy, all serenity, all peace, all bliss and do nothing but prepare for the demise of the earth?

How silly.

I intend to live normally. Appreciate sunrises and sunsets, clouds and sunshine, clear days and rainy days, budding trees and dormant trees…every day…until my spirit leaves my body. If that happens to be on 12/21/12, so be it. When I go, I will be out there looking up at the sky, watching the Universe do “her thing”! And, my last breath will be filled with wonder and excitement and awe.