There’s something not just useful, but also gratifying about making a list, outlining the things you need to do so that you can cross them off one by one. And who hasn’t written a task down just for the pleasure of crossing it off again? However, the biggest tasks—things like loving our neighbors, seeking beauty and cultivating an open heart—never get crossed off the list, so we don’t bother to write them down.
What would you put on a list of tasks that you will never be done with?
Curiosity is something that I hope to hold dear throughout my life, if possible. I think it keeps one alert and alive. There are many realms in which this is important: learning more about one’s friends and neighbors; finding out what makes certain aspects of nature tick; investigating one’s own reactions to events; listening to the stars and sky at night; seeing young people growing up successfully to maturity and civic responsibility; hearing the wind blowing hard through the trees and watching the leaves of differently structured boughs and leaves shake and quake in different patterns…all wonderful parts of life that make me happy…. or sometimes sad, but always alert.
I love lists and checking off my finished projects. But, I find one list just gets replaced with another. So there is always a list, which is a journey. And, learning to enjoy the journey, as well as the finish, is not always easy.
The one thing I will never put on a list is loving my children and, although they are adults, sharing with them whatever resources I have: wisdom, time, energy, ancestor history, family photos, recipes, cleaning short-cuts, ancient rites and superstitions (not always accepted), art music, literature, interesting websites, and just a listening ear.
Notice, I never mentioned money. LOL I love my girls, but they are both married and far more well-off financially , than I.
Zenmyme, money on the part of other parties shouldn’t be the cement that holds all of you together; things from yourself and of your family are things that you can share with them that are unique and ones that no one else can give them.
Well Patt, we don’t have to worry about that “cement” because I don’t have any money. LOL
BTW, right now, I’m working on several lists for a flea market next week, a list for an out of town business trip the next week, a repair person list, and a doctor’s appointment list for annual check-ups. I’m sure there are others.
Just writing this lists of lists is a list. LOL
Zenmyme, you certainly are a list maker! Interesting ones, too! I have a bundle of old lists that I keep because….well, I just like to look at them. Really I never actually use them unless it’s a trip that I’m going to take and I know that I need to get organized. There’s my favorite part of the book A CANTICLE FOR LEBOWITZ in which, in a future time after massive destruction on the planet, a survivor finds a “mysterious” piece of paper with writing. He thinks it is the key to understanding what happened and reads it, “go to cleaners, buy lettuce, call doctor tomorrow”,(examples) not knowing the mundaneness of it all. Is this what we will leave for the future?