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There was a woman named Lila who believed worrying meant she was being responsible. If she worried enough, she told herself, she’d be prepared for anything.
So she worried.
She worried about conversations that hadn’t happened yet.
She worried about mistakes she might make.
She worried about outcomes that lived only in her imagination.
While others enjoyed the present, Lila lived a step ahead, always bracing, always anticipating, always tense.
One evening, Lila met a friend for dinner. The food was warm, the laughter easy, the moment peaceful. Yet her mind wandered.
What if next week goes badly?
What if this happiness doesn’t last?
By the time dessert arrived, the joy had quietly slipped away, not because anything went wrong, but because worry had already carried her into tomorrow.
Later that night, Lila took a walk. The sky was painted with stars, the air calm and gentle. She stopped and realized something painful:
She had spent tomorrow’s happiness today, on fear.
All the joy meant for the future had been borrowed early, wasted on worry that never solved anything.
Tomorrow would arrive whether she worried or not.
But joy only arrived if she left room for it.
That night, Lila made a small promise. Not to never worry, but to notice when worry tried to take what didn’t belong to it.
When anxious thoughts crept in, she asked herself, Is this happening now?
If the answer was no, she let the thought pass.
Slowly, life softened.
Tomorrow didn’t look as frightening when she stopped living there prematurely. And today felt fuller when she finally stayed.
Because worry doesn’t prepare us for tomorrow,
it robs us of it.
And happiness, when allowed to arrive on time,
is far sweeter than when it’s spent too soon. 💛
