My new key to dread locks

I have dreads. Not the kind that get your hair in a twist. The kind that get your panties in a twist. 

I pretty much dread just about everything. Sometimes the dread serves a purpose: alerts me to danger, say, or helps me prepare a strategy for dealing with a difficult situation. But mostly dread taints the pleasure I might otherwise feel in life.

Recently a new mantra has been helping me: I tell myself that the only way to get to the other side of a dreaded event is to get through it. It almost makes it possible to anticipate the dreaded thing with eagerness.

It’s like the Bear Hunt solution:

“We're going to catch a big one. / What a beautiful day! / We're not scared. / Oh-oh! Grass! / Long, wavy grass. / We can't go over it. / We can't go under it. / Oh, no! / We've got to go through it!”

So when I see a pickle ahead, I try to look past the pickle to the relish.