FALL Writers!
The Worrying Club By Jean Wong •
http://lijeanwong.blogspot.com
Kenwood, CA. ~ When I was young, I used to wake up in the morning
and
see my mom, tired and dis- traught, plaining
com- about
how she tossed and turned and didn’t get any sleep. I’d ask, “What’s the mat- ter? Why couldn’t you sleep?” She said, “Worrying.” I said, “About what.” She said, “Ev- erything.” Her intense, com- plex, hyper worrisome and fussy DNA spilled into ev- ery crevice of my brain. I am as programmed to worry as a squirrel is poised to scamper or a bird to take fl ight. Yet a part of me values my fret-puss proclivities. Worry is good. Worrying is practical and realistic. It prepares you for eventualities, fi lls you with ap- preciation when the dark world
turns bright. It is a healthy out- let for doubts and negativity. When I worry, I whine—out loud, copiously and unabash- edly for all to hear. No suffer- er of repressed fears and anxi-
ety am I. It’s all out there and friends and family always greet my apprehensions with reassur- ances telling me, “Don’t worry Jean, you are such a capable, smart, good person, all will be well.” My husband will even give me backrubs and treat me to a steak dinner if I really turn up the dial. In fact I think there is scientifi c evidence out there that worrying prevents bad things from happening. People are always coming up to me and saying, “What’s the use of worrying? See every- thing turned out all right.”
Pink Shirts Everywhere! ... continued from page 18
To add to the fun and com- munity spirit, Hansel Lincoln Ford was on hand with “Driven to Give”, an opportunity for people to take a test drive in a beautiful new car. With every test drive, $50 was donated to United Way to support work in the community. United Way of the Wine Country leads Day of Caring each year to engage the com- munity and improve lives lo- cally. Along with this annual effort in it’s 24th year, United Way leads and invests in suc- cessful community programs and initiatives like Schools of Hope, an early grade reading initiative reaching over 600 children in Sonoma County, and Earn It! Keep It! $ave it!, a free tax preparation program that helped bring $4.8 million dollars in tax refunds back to the community. United Way’s annual fundraising campaign
also helps fund more than 400 local non profi ts with $1 Mil- lion in donations. You can be a part of the LIVE UNITED movement! Give – Advocate – Volunteer! Find out more by visiting united-
waywinecountry.org.
UNITED Good News! But they don’t understand that
if I hadn’t worried, the odds are the very thing I wasn’t worry- ing about would happen. Why do you think life catches peo- ple off guard, pulls the rug out from under their feet, and hits them over the head with a ham- mer—because
they assumed
everything was all right. The gods make sure insufferable, smug, entitled people get a les- son big time. That will never happen if you join my worry club. We’ll huddle together and make sure we are all fully aware of the surrounding dangers. This will be a support group of wariness, caution, hesitation. There will be much holding of hands, trembling, and gloom. We’ll share anxieties and pro- vide each other with long term fret fests. We’ll never be guilty of singing simplistic Disney Songs like Let it Go and suffer foolish and fatal lapses of Be Here Now optimism.
I Support...
camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose fi lm, only time enough to expose our hearts.
Often while traveling with a
Minor White
UPBEAT TIMES • October 2014 • 19 Weird Facts & Fun Trivia #8
In Greek mythology it is said that in autumn Persephone (Goddess of Spring, daugh- ter of Zeus and the Harvest- Goddess Demeter) rejoins Hades in the underworld as his queen.
Evergreen trees like pines, cedars, spruces, and fi rs, stay green all winter because their leaves are covered with a thick wax, and their insides hold materials that help them not to freeze!
The distance some birds travel every year when they migrate is really unbeliev- able. The Arctic Tern jour- neys about 11,000 miles each way for its annual migration; that’s like going all the way across the United States about three and a half times!
Value Night Special!
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Details at:
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300 Golf Course Dr. -Rohnert Park, CA 94928 707-585-0226
Plough deep while sluggards sleep. ~Benjamin Franklin UPBEAT TIMES • October 2014 • 19
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