Inspiration Mondays: Sitting in It

"Thinking has, many a time, made me sad, darling; but doing never did in all my life....My precept is, do something, my sister, do good if you can; but at any rate, do something." -- Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

I am guilty of overthinking things. My current knitting project is a perfect example of this:

I know. I'll make some little leaf patterns over here, I say to myself.

No wait, the thinker in me says.. You need to keep your stitch count the same.

But it should work itself out, I say.

You should do the math and figure it out, says Thinker.

It's only one or two stitches, I protest.

Fine. You'll only regret it later, Thinker sighs.

And well, Thinker and I battled it out until I ended up with a pile of yarn on the floor from a project ripped out three times. That Thinker... stinker...

And the same thing happens to me in other parts of my life: counting every single second of my workouts, measuring every single gram of food, recounting every little look and word I said, or every single look and word said to me... wondering what was meant by that... wondering what I should do next... wondering if that chair should go here... or there... or if I should water my garden now or hope that it rains...

Or, I could just stop thinking and just do stuff and not take everything so freaking seriously.

And yeah, I know details are important. It's my attention to detail that makes me good at knitting, and at my job, and helps my marriage. But sometimes, I just have to accept that I can't think my way through each and every problem. Sometimes, a problem is a problem, and the unknown is just... unknown. And no amount of stressing or pacing or ranting is going to change that.

A friend of mine said recently, "Sometimes, you just have to sit in it."

And that means, I just have to drop the psychobabble and just eat/drink/walk/work/love/listen/live. What's the worst that could happen with that, huh?

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