Things Aren’t Always As Bad As They Seem

There it was. Just as the radar had promised.

The cloud was very dark, almost purple. If it hadn’t been so ominous, it might have been even pretty. But I knew what it could cause - heavy rain, lightening, and gusty winds. My husband and I were heading away from the storm, but it would be only a matter of time before it reached us.

Thankfully, we arrived home before the storm hit. And to our surprise, the storm wasn’t as bad as it had looked.

Huh. Weird, I thought.

As a worrywart, this seems to happen a lot. I tend to worry before there is anything to worry about. I can see a potential problem (or at least I think I do sometimes), and then nothing happens. Like the recent storm, I thought it was going to be one of the strongest storms I had ever experienced, but then not much happened. We had some rain and thunder and lightening, but not much else. I had worried about nothing. Again. I had unnecessarily stressed myself out. Again.

And I hope I’m worrying about nothing now. As I’ve said before, I have a vascular condition on one of my legs and one of my biggest worries is blood clots. Recently, I went to the doctor and found out that while the veins in my legs look pretty good, I have a couple of spots that are similar to varicose veins. The doctor didn’t seem too worried about them, so I left feeling relieved. Until now.

My leg has started aching at times, but I know I shouldn’t be concerned about it because the doctor reassured me that there was nothing to worry about. I know before I’ve mentioned the idea of creating a list of things that I’ve worried about but never happened. I think this would be good time to do that to help me stop worrying about my leg.

Here’s a sample of my list (I say sample because this has the potential to be a long list):

Being caught in a tornado (knock on wood, this hasn’t happened).
Getting a blood clot on an airplane (knock on wood, this hasn’t happened).
Seeing rain on my wedding day (the weather ended up being absolutely perfect!).
Slipping on ice in the snowstorms this past winter (by the time I drove by myself, the ice had melted from the major roadways).
Traveling to Germany by myself and getting lost at the airport (it ended up being a breeze finding my way around - even though I don’t speak German!).
Driving and getting lost in unfamiliar areas, especially in downtown areas (the GPS is a great invention and has helped me to find my way a lot).
Getting sick by eating unfamiliar foods in foreign countries (i.e., octopus in Italy).

Looking at this list, I have to say I feel a little silly having worried about such things. But hindsight’s 20/20, right? It’s nice to look back on the things that I thought were going to end poorly and realize that they weren’t as bad as they had seemed at the time. I must keep this in mind when I start worrying again...