Once a teacher said to me: “Try not to worry about anything. Life is long and things are changing continually.” Few years ago, I would not understand. How can I not worry if there are bills to pay and I am not doing well on my job? How can I not worry when I am sick and I don’t know when or if I will get better? How can I not worry when I don’t know how things are going to turn out? Today I understand better. It works pretty easily and it can save us trouble. How, then?
When I am visiting my parents, we ocassionally play pentanque. You know it? It is a game played by old people in France. Well, my parents are not old, neither am I. For some reason, we like to play it.
On our playground (read: a part of their garden), there was a construction material from August when we played the last time, as my parents were buliding a porch. So the next game could be played only in October.
During the previous game in August, the ground was very dry, hard as rock, and in a yellow-brown color shades. When you threw the pentaque ball, it jumped away a few meters. It was so because of an enormous drought Czechia was experiencing for over a month at that time. Everyone was tired of that, not only because of the ruined pentaque games. The drouhgt seemed to never end.
When we played now in October, the ground was waterlogged and soft, the balls were sinking into the mud, the grass was distinctly deep green.
And that’s how it is with everything.
#7 / Things are changing continually. Even if conditions in some area of our lives look difficult – we only have one certainty – they will change. There is no point to stress about it too much or worry about it. While worrying is natural and we are used to it to some extent, it is much more useful to think about how to improve situations and what constructive things can be done. And sometimes there’s almost nothing that can be done, like with the drought. You can’t make it rain. In such cases, Winston Churchill’s quote might be helpful: “When you are going through hell, keep walking.” Because even that hell will change one day and the grass will turn green.