The poem “My Worries Have Worries” by Laura Villareal portrays the pervasive nature of anxiety as an almost tangible entity—so tangible that we could build homes for it. It doesn’t just stop at humanizing our worries; it parentally nurtures them, cultivating gardens of tomatoes, cilantro, and carrots, as if to feed the next generation of frets and fears. It’s a bit like a fractal, where anxiety produces more anxiety in a never-ending cycle.
Herein lies a paradox: we can become caretakers of our anxieties, so much so that we create an environment for them to flourish. While this may sound counterintuitive, acknowledging our anxieties as an integral part of us could be the first step in managing them. Think of it as selective gardening: it’s okay to allow certain “plants” to grow while diligently pruning others. Being this garden’s caretaker gives us some level of control. Tomorrow, when these worries reappear, we have the blueprints to reconstruct their homes, adapt our coping mechanisms, and perhaps even plant different seeds for a more resilient inner landscape.
Read more at: Laura Villareal — My Worries Have Worries | The On Being Project
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