Expecting the unlikely is a notoriously bad habit among seniors.  It is so easy to drown in the despair about what may be.  It is even easier to float in it, until you are far out at sea, with little idea how to get back to shore and reality. 

Alfred E. Neumann of Mad Magazine made famous the line “What Me Worry?”  It is a provocative thought to ponder.  Why worry?  The unlikely likely will not happen.  Venturing into its dark caverns can lose you in serpentine trails that seem to have no end or exit.  You may get caught in the carnival like maze of a haunted house, from which escape seems a questionable outcome.

Lots of seniors, however, pursue hours on end in search of the unlikely “what ifs?’  Fretting is as poor a use of time and as unproductive in its investment as anything one can do.  It changes no outcome.  It adds nothing to intelligence or wisdom. It is even unhealthy.  Some people seem to draw some satisfaction from it.  Why or what kind I have no way to surmise.  Most worriers do so at the peril of driving others away from them.  Some declare, “I just can’t help it.”  Of course you can.  You may find too much satisfaction in drowning in the whirlpool of despair.  What a waste of he valuable creative energy one could use otherwise.

Spending time expecting the unlikely, expecting the sky to fall will add worry lines to your face, a stoop to  your shoulders, a drag to your step.  Leap out of that kind of limiting and imprisoning world.  Find  joy in greeting the unlikely, in anticipating its presence no matter how or when it comes!  Greet the unlikely. Allow even the serendipity of sudden collision with something unexpected to be a wholesome, enriching, broadening experience.  Who knows, the unlikely may introduce a new wonder in your life!