Work and Lists

Yesterday I felt tied to my work. I'd played too much, worked too little. I didn't think that was possible, but all my volunteer obligations were catching up with me.

I decided to practice a little of that self-discipline that I should be good at by now. I sat myself down at the computer to update charts and all the other things I needed to do. I believe I sat down fairly early in the morning and didn't really surface again until sometime in the afternoon.

I'd made a list at some point, and I suppose it was nice being able to cross off a few things. The problem with lists is that they seem to be a growing living thing. You can never get everything crossed off if you are honest about it.

I'm reminded of a friend I worked with many years ago. She is one who isn't driven by the need for visual neatness. She stacks... everywhere. It is just her way, even though it would drive me crazy. It really isn't my problem. To each their own, as we say.

One year my friend had a health issue that took her away from work for an extended period of time. It ended up that she had to have a long term substitute. Another team member and I decided that we had to do something to help with the situation. There were also end of the year reports to be done. Both being visuals, meaning things must be neat and in order, we 'screwed our courage to the sticking point' and headed into our friend's world of stacks and stuff. It was a nasty job, but someone had to do it.

Our friend was not there to defend herself, and we were in strange territory. However, we took on the challenge with respect for her ways and decided we would try to do what was necessary without totally ruining her world of stacks and stuff. It really was a challenge.

I clearly remember one defining moment in the organizational and cleaning process that we so reluctantly undertook. It happened when we opened a cabinet door and found a list. Yes, there in the cabinet was a crumpled to do list written by our friend. That alone made us chuckle.

We started reading the list...chuckle chuckle. I wish I could remember now all the little things that she had written and checked off as having completed. What I do remember was the one item that did NOT have a check. It was the one thing that probably would forever remain unchecked: Clean the room.

We found in that cabinet a host of things that could well have been tossed. We tried very hard to resist jumping in with fervor and giving that place a through cleaning as we defined cleaning. I will admit that we tossed a few things, among them a petrified donut. Seriously. It had long long passed any possible reason for existing, and our reason told us that it should just be tossed.

We sat on the floor of her room for quite awhile with tears running down our faces. We had been throughly entertained at our friend's expense. It was the best laugh we had for a long time. I will confess that we did give her a hard time about the check list and the petrified donut. To this day, we sometimes remind her of our sacrifice. We haven't let her forget and sometimes ask her if she has made another to do list. She just calls us tacky and moves on.

Moving on is a great idea, and it is time for me to get back to my own list of things to accomplish today. I keep wanting to schedule time to play, but it doesn't seem to be on the list for awhile. I want to play, but the dust settles, the laundry piles up, there are errands to run, and the list grows. So, I'm off and hope to accomplish at least one or two things to check off of the list. Ta Dah!