Life Lived in Lists

Thin the spinach

Plant the squash

Put out slug bait

clean the bathroom

Buy bread, milk, and Gerbera daisies

Create the PowerPoint for next Thursday…

And so it goes.  My life this month has been lived in lists.  They are scattered everywhere, testimony to my attempts to stay focused and efficient in the face of more to-dos than time to do ‘em. 

It’s not like life isn’t always busy.  If I want it to be.  But when I quit my conventional job three years ago to be a work-from-home consultant, part of the agreement I made with myself–and my hubby housemate–was that I’d choose not to be busy.  I’d work part-time and shrug off housework, letting the dust layer itself like prehistoric sedimentary rock all over my furniture and window sills, that in trade for languorously paging through a book on the porch in between dozing and bird watching.  In other words, I’d relax more for my mental, physical and spiritual health.

So what happened a few weeks ago?  You’d think that after three years, I’d have worn a relaxation groove so deeply in my habits that I wouldn’t know how to rev up again.  But before I could say, “Stress!” I was scribbling lists of nagging tasks all over random scraps of paper, the outward expression of my inward spin cycle. 

So here I am May 18th, finally getting to the item “blog” on a yellow sticky note.  Below blog is “paint” and “lodging for Ketchum.”  I’m tempted to truncate my essay and skip to our late July mini-vacation, an act of escaping my current labors as well as the zig zagging of my concrete-random style.  But I resist.  There’s a chance that a few devout readers will return to this page for more Susanintherain, and I’d better reward that.  And yet, as I tap out this post, our resident house sparrow flits past the window, reminding me that I need to sweep the porch clean of his aggregating contributions, and then I think of the hanging baskets that need watering, and the slugs–ugh!–which must be picked off daily.  How was it I ever had time to work a regular job?  Not to mention my three new pots drying on the kitchen island, each ready for a quarter turn to balance the effects of subtle drafts wafting through the house.  I’d better add them to my lists.

Send Linda the pictures from Ireland

Pick up some potting soil

Repot house plants

Walk the dogs

Order out for Thai

Pour a glass of wine ( :