My Therapy

I am a worrier. My roommate freshman year of college jokingly called me Chicken Little, since I was always worried that the smallest thing, like a C on an exam, would make the sky fall down. Thankfully, I’ve relaxed a lot since then and now a case of the worries only pops up occasionally.

However, one time of year that they reliably pop up is as I am getting ready for the beginning of the school year. Every year, throughout August, I have the same nightmares: I arrive on the first day of school, but my classroom isn’t set up and I didn’t plan any lessons.

This past week, these worries started creeping up on me. It didn’t help that it poured nonstop all week. When I saw that the weather for Sunday was predicted to be sunny, I texted some friends saying, “Blueberries.”

One friend came back with a brilliant plan, a multiple mile walk out on the tundra, with berry picking along the way.

Sunday morning arrived and it was still a bit cool as we departed.  We quickly warmed ourselves up by jogging through the squishy tundra, afraid that if we went too slow we’d sink in. Then as the first berries plopped into our buckets, the fog started lifting, giving us a great view of the mountains in the distance. We continued ambling along, stopping wherever there was a good berry patch, and chatting about life. As I set aside my first quart of berries, I shifted my focus from the ground to the sky. The sun was now out in full force and the clouds were moving quickly by. Later, when I went to set aside another quart, a breeze started and whisked the bugs away.

When we started to walk back I realized that the combination of the sun, the exertion from tundra walking, the berries and the chatting had made my worries go away.