January 25th, 2017

We all have them.  Gotta-do lists I mean.  There are the everyday ones that you keep subconsciously while your prioritize and re-prioritize your day:  "Get started on that report then return those phone calls before the meeting"  or  "Write your blog, wash the floors, grocery shop and paint the trim in the kitchen".   And then there is the other side,  the are the wink and a nod lists where you keep saying you are going to get to something in the distant future but the actual likelihood is ranked somewhere between slim and none such as: organize and repack the Christmas decorations or paint the inside of the closets.  And every sort of list in between.

If you are like me, you keep a running grocery list.  Whenever I realize that there is something we need because either I just used the last of it, I just noticed we were running really low on it or I want to make a specific recipe that requires something we do not usually have on hand.  If you are again like me, you also keep an eye out for pertinent corresponding coupons to bring to the store with that list.  If you are once more, like me, you then often leave both list and coupons on the kitchen counter in a very tidy pile when you totter off to the store.

There are the lists that are thrust upon us.  The ones that well intended doctors surprise us with when we reach a certain age.  If this hasn't already happened to you, you will find out.  Go in for an ordinary physical either because your insurance company requires it or you are doing the smart good thing by annually just being sure.  Regardless of how healthy you look and feel, you will leave with a fistful of prescriptions and orders for other tests.  Sometimes these end up on the wink and a smile list pile. 

Some incredibly organized people have incredibly organized lists of their finances, their tax stuff, and their important papers.  Semi-organized people instead have lists of their various passwords and appointments.  Totally unorganized people have all of this in their wink and a smile list pile.

An address book is a list of sorts. It is an alphabetized compliation of the names, addressed, phone numbers and sometimes email address of the people you would send Christmas cards to, if you actually were inclined to send them out.  A recipe is another example of a common list.  It is!  All the ingredients you require and the instructions in when to do it order right there in a neat pile.  Handy!

When I'm packing for a trip, I have a mental list of what I need to take.  I'm sorry to say that it takes me far longer than necessary and I always overpack. But, I nearly always have exactly what I need, and a little bit more, thanks to that brain packing list.   In fact, there is the before we walk out the door list every time we travel too.  Lights?  AC?  Keys?  Photo ID?  Gas in the car?  Cellphones?  Cellphone chargers?

Then, just for the sake of whimsy, there is the only rarely known fact of how much I just love lists in general.  Perhaps it's the tidiness of them.  When I was younger, I had lists of favourite music, lists of favourite movies, lists of favourite books, all of which constantly were changing which means always updating the lists.  There was something very satisfying to me back then about just writing it all down.   When I was expecting each of my children, I made lists of names and wrote them out, first name, middle name last name.  It was equally important to me how they sounded, what the names meant and how they looked on paper.  Naturally. 

And in fact, I just recalled that I used to own a book called, The Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information by David  Wallechinsky.  I understand that he has written another one, with new information.  I loved that book and read it like a novel.  Actually I've had several similar type books, lists of things.  There is a series of books that I adore, The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  She must also be a lover of lists because she has written her own very detailed lists, The Outlandish Companion, to assist readers in understanding all that needs to be understood about her book series.  An author who gets me.

And then there is my favourite kind of list. My just before I fall asleep list.  My list of blessings.  All the things and all of the people I am grateful to have in my life.  I am a very lucky lady because  that particular list is so long, I generally fall asleep before I finish it each and every night.