SoCS: Listen for the Lions, but Don’t Worry Too Much

April 23, 2022 by JoAnna 25 Comments

Our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “too/to/two.” Use one, use ’em all, bonus points if you use all three. Extra bonus points if you start your post with one. Enjoy!

Two ears and two eyes would be an evolutionary advantage over one eye and one ear. Two ears makes it easier to tell where the lions are. With only one ear, you’d have to turn your head, always wondering where the lions are. I’ll come back to that. Two eyes and two ears look better, or is that just a cultural thing? What I was getting to, in a round about way, is that we have two ears and two eyes, but only one mouth which would suggest that we should listen and watch more than we talk. That’s sorta how the saying goes. Are there any animals that have more than one mouth? A Venus fly trap, but that is not an animal. Would more than one mouth be too many? I’m not going to worry about it.

Recently, I had another example, a lesson, reminding me not to worry too much. You might remember that I mentioned needing to step back from a group I was in, a weekly zoom meeting. It wasn’t a good fit anymore for my schedule or my energy. I worried about what and how to tell the friend who ran the group. I constructed an email with limited explanations of why I wanted to take a break from the group. I ended up texting or emailing something more simple – just that I was taking a break from the group. She didn’t ask why as I thought she would. What she wrote was that she had been getting tired of the group too (!). I didn’t need to explain anything! She has since decided to disband the group. The lesson (without the codependent notion that I caused the group to end) is that I spent way too much time worrying about how she would react to my absence.

How many times have I worried about something that never happened? Too many. Maybe writing this will help me remember, not to worry too much. Or maybe not to worry at all!

I think I’ll take a break from worrying. Maybe it’s a privilege some don’t have. But I hope there will be moments of peace here and there for everyone.

There are plenty of metaphorical lions, but I have nothing against actual lions. I just want to know where they are. Coincidentally, but not really, my CNN Good stuff newsletter has an article this morning about Tanzania’s Lion Defenders who just want to keep track of where they are. That might pop up in my Good News Tuesday post.

~~~

For more streams of consciousness and guidelines, visit out host, Linda Hill HERE.