The Longest Shortest Time

The Worry Box Project

At least once a day someone tells me, “Oh, your daughter looks just like you!” Which is funny because toward the end of my pregnancy I’d have this recurring dream that she’d be born and she’d look exactly like my mother-in-law. And nobody would know she was mine.

The dreams and anxieties we have about our children—probably especially in the beginning, before we really know who they are—tend to be vivid. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes strange, sometimes irrational. And sometimes they hit upon a truth—a fear that we weren’t even aware we were afraid of.

Irene Lusztig’s Worry Box Project is a beautiful collection of all of these types of maternal fears. Visitors to the site can anonymously type in their own dreams and anxieties. Irene then hand-writes the entry under a video camera, rolls up the piece of paper, and drops it in the “worry box,” along with everyone else’s worries. The rest of us get to click on the rolled-up worries and read them.

Anyway. Check out the site. If you’re not the type of person who feels comfortable sharing your story in a format like LST, you might enjoy the complete anonymity of The Worry Box Project. Or you might just find solace in seeing that other people have the same worries that you have . . . as well as ones you don’t.