Poison Ivy and Other Worst Case Scenarios

My oldest child decided to move her chicken coop in her bathing suit cover up this week. It’s a long story fraught with bad decision making. As a result of chicken relocation 2022, the swim suit edition, she contracted poison ivy. Now before you think of all the horror story rashes, it is a small patch on one of her legs. Really this is no big deal. Pink lotion it is!

But the diagnosis of poison ivy struck fear and panic into the very core of our “middlest” child. Now she, herself remains unaffected. Literally has no rash, nor has she ever had poison ivy before. However the possibility of getting poison ivy is too much for her. We spent most of bed time going over the probability of getting poison ivy. We covered how to get it, what it looks like, contagiousness from others (she literally asked if we should quarantine her sister), and the potential amount of poison ivy we thought we have near our house.

We spend a lot of time working on worst case scenarios at bed time over here. Yes, there is definitely poison ivy near our house. And while the oldest does have a “dreaded case” (which I remind you is just a small patch on her right leg), it is treatable. See pink lotion from above. And finally yes poison ivy could even happen to you, me, or worse, the middlest in the family. We all have one and if you don’t know who it is, it’s probably you.

If we choose to focus on the worst case scenarios, we don’t see the best moments that life can offer us. It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole of all the terrible things that could happen. But then we forget to stay present for and be grateful for the times that we don’t have poison ivy.

Bad things happen all the time but the choice to recenter yourself on the positive is a head game. Let the worst scenario moment pass and find courage to do the things that give you joy. Face the possibility of poison ivy head on and move your chickens.