These days I’ve been very focused on several changes. And this morning, while making breakfast, I remembered a scene from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: a wise man asks a young man to walk through his palace carrying a spoon with two drops of oil without spilling them. On the first round, the young man guards the oil so carefully that he doesn’t see anything in the palace. On the second, he marvels at everything… but spills the oil. The lesson is simple: if I only guard my “drops,” I lose sight of life; if I only look at life, I neglect what I’m supposed to care for.
Sometimes our worries are those two drops: they absorb us so much that we stop looking to God, to the present, and to the people around us (Luke 10:41–42).
Scripture warns us about living this way. Jesus said, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow; sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). And we’re invited to let go of what weighs us down: “casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). This isn’t ignoring responsibility; it’s trusting God with what we cannot control.
When we cling to our worries too tightly, afraid everything will fall apart, we lose our peace and we also stop seeing the gifts already in front of us: a conversation with a loved one, the beauty of ordinary things, the chance to serve. Mind and body grow tired, and relationships suffer.
We are not omnipotent or omniscient. We were never called to carry the world. That place belongs to God. When we place our burdens in His hands, there is room to truly live: to breathe, to give thanks, to attend to what matters.
Today do something simple and practical: leave everything in the Lord’s hands. Pray; step outside and look at the sky; read for a while without your phone; share a meal and be fully present. Examine your thoughts and open your eyes to what is happening now. Don’t let worry steal this day.
📸 Image taken by Ramón Sánchez
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