The Mule Called Worry

Ah, friend, you’ve plucked a fine thistle of truth there, and Emil O’Foofnick will rub it ‘til the scent comes out. 🌱

See, worry is a peculiar mule. Hitch it to what you can’t control—the weather, the stock market, or your cousin Louie’s opinions—and it’ll drag you all over creation, braying at the moon while you blister your hands on the reins. But tie that mule to what you can control—your next step, your daily bread, your tone of voice when tempers flare—and suddenly you’re the one steering. You may not choose the trail, but you can darn sure decide how you walk it.

Now, suppose you do take hold of what you can control—your habits, your actions, your words—and yet the worry lingers like smoke after the fire’s gone cold. Well, that’s the universe telling you the problem ain’t in the mule, it’s in the rider. If the saddle still chafes after all adjustments, maybe it’s time to change the way you sit.

In plainer talk: when worry keeps tapping your shoulder, answer it not with more fretting but with a different dance. Respond with humor, with patience, with a long walk in the woods. Trade reaction for choice. A man can’t always dam the river, but he can decide whether to drown in it or float downstream whistling.

So, worry about what you can control, control it with gusto, and if worry still camps out at your doorstep, change how you greet it. Offer it tea, laugh at its fuss, and send it packing before sundown.

Twainian Maxim:

“Worry is just interest paid early on a debt you may never owe.”

That’s all I have to say, I will say no more.

Foofnick–Twain Maxims on Worry

1. “Worry is a rocking chair—you wear yourself out and get nowhere but sore.”
2. “A man who spends today worrying about tomorrow is like a farmer trying to milk a cow he ain’t bought yet.”
3. “Control what’s in your hands and stop reaching for what’s blowing in the wind.”
4. “Worry is just fear wearing your hat and boots, trying to pass itself off as you.”
5. “You can’t stop the crows from flying overhead, but you don’t have to let ’em build a nest in your hair.”
6. “Most worries are like thunder—awful loud but gone before they hit the ground.”
7. “Better to mend your own fence than fret about the neighbor’s storm.”
8. You can’t stop the crows from flying overhead, but you don’t have to let ’em build a nest in your hair.”
9. “Most worries are like thunder—awful loud but gone before they hit the ground.”
10. “Better to mend your own fence than fret about the neighbor’s storm.”