Jack was going to inspect the apple tree at the bottom of the garden.
He packed his notebook and water bottle. Then something occurred to him.
What if it rained?
He added an umbrella.
What if his feet got wet? In went spare boots. What if he became stranded? He found a blanket and some rope.
By the time he added a wooden spoon for emergency cooking, his backpack was prepared to explore another continent.
Jack lifted it onto his shoulders.
The apple tree was thirty steps away.
Yet he could almost feel the cold rain and imagine himself spending the night beneath a branch. His heart beat faster. Standing on his dry porch, he was already experiencing an expedition that existed only in his imagination.
Then the wooden spoon brushed his ear.
Jack paused.
“What exactly am I cooking?”
He laughed and looked across the familiar garden. Somewhere between packing his notebook and finding the rope, a visit to an apple tree had become a survival mission.
None of those emergencies was happening. But picturing them had felt real enough to pack for.
As that dawned on him, the urgency softened. He had not solved every possible problem. He had simply noticed where the frightening adventure was taking place.
A quieter bit of common sense occurred to him: he could see the tree from the kitchen. If it rained, he could come inside.
Jack set down the backpack and chose what he needed. He did not have to chase away every “what if” before taking thirty steps.
Soon he was beneath the tree, happily examining a beetle.
The wooden spoon stayed home. Its wilderness skills would have to remain untested.
Have you ever noticed yourself feeling an imagined situation as though it were already happening?
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