Each small accomplishment completed brings me closer to…what exactly? The finish line?

Posted on by Live & Learn

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All month I’ve been making lists, crossing things off lists, making new lists – grocery lists, to-do lists, gift lists. Somehow the act of writing things down and crossing them out calms me, as if each small accomplishment or task completed brings me closer to…what exactly? The finish line?

Of course, the idea of completion is an illusion. There will be to-dos until the day when there aren’t, and I’m certainly not in any hurry to get there. Nor do I want to look at December 25 as the end of some silly holiday race.

So my challenge today, and every day this season, is to simply relax into the day’s doings, whatever they may be. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that the closer I stay to home and hearth during these short, dark days, the more peaceful I feel.

~ Katrina Kenison, from “Spicy Holiday Granola” (December 15, 2017)

25 thoughts on “Each small accomplishment completed brings me closer to…what exactly? The finish line?”

  1. There’s nothing better than crossing items off your “list.” I accomplished quite a few items on my list today – and it feels so good!

  2. I’m a list person when I find I’m on overload. The rest of the time I might make a grocery list and when I get to the store I find I’ve left the list at home. I should have put on the list, “Don’t forget the list.”

      1. Believe it or not, I didn’t come across the word ‘Hearth’ until I read Ahab’s Wife last year. It’s such a beautiful word.

  7. I call this the ‘Velocity of Infinity’ – and my mind refuses to make a grand list because it will always feel incomplete, like an unresolved melody.

    I deal with it by making a small list of 2/3/4/5 items that I will do today, or by the end of the week. I know that there will be another set of tasks sitting just behind as the next steps of a project, or something that emerges in my inbox along the way to derail me.

    Accepting that situation has made me feel much more productive.

    1. Thank you Matt. Velocity of Infinity – love that as I do “incomplete, like an unresolved melody”. I have yet to accept this situation – I have a ways to go here. Thanks for sharing your thoughtful insight.

  8. I’m in COMPLETE agreement with Katrina… I largely ‘go to ground’ during this season, holed up in my home with plenty of firewood and a nice supply of books. The bustle of the holidays is fun…to a point.

    2. Lori, I’d add a glass of red or, depending on the mood and the time, a large Christmas mug of Christmassy tea (cinnamon ginger hot and spicy)…. 🙂

  9. Finished my Christmas to-do list a few days ago, realized this morning that it’s my LAST DAY of work for the year – 11 glorious days off, books stacked, snow in the forecast – home and hearth it is – hell yeah!

    Merry Christmas David! ~ MJ

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