Haiku 2023–252

staring at the ground

anticipating the worst

praying for the best

— —

This haiku come courtesy of a moment this week when my heart said to act but my brain held me in check. While my brain was right, my heart couldn’t stomach being put in its place and decided to flood my brain with anxiety. Left unchecked, my anxiety will build and build until it transforms to frustration. If frustration continues to pile up, then anger ensues — a situation that often shuts my brain completely down. What’s my method for stopping this runaway chain reaction? I’m still working on that, but for the episode in question it was staring at the ground and concentrating on my breathing.

The situation that caused this is someone else’s story to tell. My reaction to someone I love feeling psychological pain about a situation they’ve put been put in is mine. It’s yet to be determined how this whole thing is going to turn out, but I anticipate that I have more staring at the ground left to do.