What If?

What if everything was fine?

What if our problems weren’t really a big deal? If the things keeping you up at night could be ignored until the morning?

What if things don’t work out exactly like you hope? Or things do turn out exactly as you feared? 

What if we were allowed to have bad days, and instead of panicking or wishing them away, we let them be. What if we allowed a little negativity to pass us by and we simply acknowledged that such moments, days, and weeks exist?

What if we didn’t care — not that we didn’t think things mattered — but understood that we can only control so much, and that the rest is up to people and influences beyond what we can possibly manage? If we were content doing our part and let the world manage the rest?

What if we were able to say yes to that thing? What if we were able to say no to that other thing? What if we did what we wanted, and not what we thought everyone else wanted? If we took our own desires as seriously as those of everyone around us — including people we don’t really know.

What if we stopped punishing ourselves mentally and emotionally for failures that don’t matter? If we spent more time realizing that we can let things pass over us without having to hold a strong opinion? If we refused to engage simply because we thought we have to?

What if we started telling ourselves “actually, everything is okay”?

I don’t know the answers. You likely don’t know the answers. That’s the point. Why do we allow ourselves to be disappointed by things outside our control while acting complacently about the few things we can control? Sometimes the solve is to meditate on our problems and to think more about them; to dig down and evaluate why we feel the way we do. Sometimes, however, the best course of action is to think less, to accept things as they are, and to decide that life’s just fine the way it is, with our own unique ups and downs that are part of every life on earth. 

What if?  

-Chris Ackroyd