She rolled her eyes just like that in her last game, I said to myself.  Exactly like that. 

Dave and I had talked earlier about today’s game time for the Indiana Fever of the WNBA, and even though he was in Las Vegas and I was in Fort Scott, we both now were watching the Fever play.

With only two minutes left, the camera showed Caitlyn Clark conversing with two of her teammates on the bench.  Caitlyn, a star on the team, is on the injured list, but she clearly was enjoying her teammates trouncing the opponent.

For some reason, the eye-rolling was a DeJa’Vu moment for me, and when the announcer said that this was the largest crowd ever for the Chicago team, I remembered hearing that before as well.  When the game ended, I called Dave.

“Great game, huh?”  I said.

“Not for the Fever,” he answered.

Say what?

By now, you’ve probably figured out what I had not figured out. I had just sat through the same game I had watched a few days earlier against the Chicago Sun.  Dave had watched the game the Fever actually played…against the Atlanta Dream.  The only things that seemed familiar to me were Caitlyn Clark rolling her eyes and an announcement about the crowd size—nothing about the game.

What is wrong with my brain?

The same week, I left my phone and glasses at my stepdaughter’s house, failed to set my timer and left pizza in the oven until it burned, forgot to buy the Brillo pads necessary to clean the blackened pizza off the oven racks, had to Google the name for the oven shelves (“racks”) and couldn’t recall the name of the Iron Dome when discussing the Israeli/Iran war.

I think I am stressed.

The American Institute of Stress notes that 75 to 90 percent of visits to primary care physicians are stress-related.  Stress kills.  I’m not dead, but I am anxious, even though nothing is that big of a deal.

Dave and I had been organizing a move back to Kansas where I accepted a teaching job for one year.  Quality sleep has alluded me, as every night I dream of students running amok in my classroom.

We had been busy, saying goodbye to family and friends, and we were both forgetting things we needed to do to prepare for the drive home. Sticky notes helped, unless we forgot to read them.

Philippians 4:6-7 gives us direction when we are stressed: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.                                                                                                                          

I read that scripture and realize how I need to focus on what is going right, not what might go wrong. I am blessed with family and friends who want to spend time with me, a job opportunity where I can inspire students, the money to buy pizzas and Brillo pads, a vehicle that can safely get us home, a house to go home to, and most importantly, a Savior who stands beside me, even when I allow my circumstances to cause me angst.

I focus either on my problems or God’s promises.

We all know which one I need to choose.