Handling Twice the Stress

I don’t like to be blindsided.

Well, that’s the logic I have maintained most of my life, the ‘what ifs’ driving various scenarios in my imagination, from little things to big ones:

“What if my child is part of the pile-up I heard about on the news?”

“What if the noise coming from my dryer means it’s going on the fritz?” (Hubbin forgot to take something out of his pants pocket)

“What if someone breaks into my home?” (this, after having two sets of criminals break into my two previous homes, within four months of each other)

“What if the power goes out in the storm,” and along with that thought, “What if a tornado that hits our home?”

And the most recent (this morning) is, “What if they don’t get all the cancer,” or “What if Hubbin dies on the table?”

Those rabbit holes I have gone down have caused a great deal of stress for me and this morning I’m contemplating this thinking. Am I preparing myself for what could possibly happen, or am I causing myself undue stress? I mean, if those things don’t happen, then I’ve stressed for nothing. If they do, then I’ll stress all over again with the reality. So, is there a happy medium without causing undue stress? Is being prepared for the worst, hard on the prepper? Is it a good thing to be prepared for various scenarios, or is my imagination causing more drama in my life than I can handle?

Pondering this topic before heading out for the day…