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Gina Prosch

finding joy one day at a time

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On Overthinking…and Squirrels

There are a couple of routes I usually take on my way home — one is a busy two-lane highway complete with crazy drivers passing in the face of oncoming traffic, riding my bumper, and swerving back into their lanes as they look up from their texting.

No surprise that the route I drive most often is one of two-lane country blacktops.

It’s the lazy way — the long way — and it gives me a chance to relax and enjoy a slower, winding drive as I head toward home.

The last few weeks the signs of autumn have set in, and I’ve noticed a definite uptick in the number of squirrels going about their business. They’re busy at work, hunting nuts and setting up their cache for winter.

If their efforts are forecasting the weather, then this winter is shaping up to be a hard one.

I thought about those squirrels just this morning as I came up to my office to work on my blog post.

Oft times, they’ve got nuts in their mouth as they scramble across the road.
They make it 3/4 of the way across, see the oncoming car, and lose their minds….scrambling back and forth and back and forth.

I was that squirrel today.

This morning, I started writing, but then about 3/4 of the way through the blog post, I changed my mind about where it was going and went back and started editing.

Then I changed my mind again.

I could have kept it up all day long.

But, since the post needs to be finished up before lunchtime, I even had a figurative CAR bearing down on me.

I refuse to be THAT SQUIRREL…the one who overthinks everything and ends up dead in the middle of the road.

I stopped thinking — stopped hemming and hawing — and hit the delete key.

Then I walked back to the edge of the road (or in the case back to blank sheet of paper) and started over. Right here. With this post.

For good measure, I’m moving my little squirrel friend in the photo above to a spot where I will walk past it on my way to my home office.

It will be my signal to Just Make Up Your Mind Already!

And  here’s to all the squirrels out there serving as our real-world reminders.

Every time you see one crossing the road, say to yourself, “Do Not Overthink!”

It’s not good for squirrels…and it’s not so good for people either.

 

Filed Under: Gina Prosch Blog Tagged With: inner squirrel, just make up your mind, overthinking

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