This morning I had a good look at one of the houses behind ours while I was doing my stretches. One of them has recently been redeveloped to add a room in the roof and I think it’s been done very tastefully.
I was reminded of a conversation with a neighbour shortly after the giant scaffold tower with the big roof protection cladding went up around. He was getting stressed because as far as he was concerned the work wasn’t being done in line with the planning application and it was bigger/more obtrusive/worse than he had been led to believe and wasn’t it ‘awful’. I’d started to get sucked into his story but stopped myself by reminding myself that actually it wasn’t my problem. If it wasn’t in line with planning, they would have to fix it or revise the planning until it was. It was only a load of scaffold and we wouldn’t have a clue what it was really going to look like until that came down.
His energy was all over the place and I don’t think he’d have much energy left after spending it all getting worked up about something he couldn’t control and didn’t even exist yet except in his mind.
My energy would have gone the same way but I stopped the energy drain! 
I want to use my limited supply of energy to do the things I want to do in the world, to be the person I want to be for the people I love and care about, and the people I work with and for. I don’t want to use it getting worked up about things that are out of my control.
It was a powerful reminder – and it will be every morning I look at that house!
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