When my mother retired in her sixties, she removed “learn to speak french” off of her to-do list. She wanted to add “learn to use a computer” and something had to go. The list after all can only be so long or it becomes unmanageable. To this day, at ninety-three she has her tablet with her at all times to check her emails, get her BBC updates or research a new prescription.
I, on the other hand can’t seem to shrink my to-do list… Not yet sixty I feel there is always hope for everything currently on the list and there seems to be endless additions. I am so easily distracted from scheduled tasks….
Yesterday, after quilting as I headed to the garden I could hear the baby flicker in the nest above the driveway. She was calling to her Mom and seemed impatient for her lunch. I sat on the mossy rock beneath the pillar and tried to get a picture. After Mom fed her, a second head peaked out the two babes had a little cuddle. 
Then I went to the garden to tackle the to do list there… But three Crossbills arrived. I couldn’t help but spend the rest of the afternoon visiting with them… They are beautiful. 
Easily distracted my to-do list has no chance of reducing, by accomplishment. The only chance to reduce the list is to follow my Moms example and take a few items off which have become extremely unlikely. Sure I could take “learn to speak French” off to make some room but I am not ready to throw in the towel… So I am going to remove “beat Stephi Graf in singles” ……. I am thinking my days of perhaps winning Wimbledon are
probably behind me
Off the Grid Islander 
I have struggled with lists for years. I would have a list for each day and if I didn’t finish the stuff on the list I would feel dissatisfied. I sometimes made lists in categories, like List of Things to do this summer, or Boat List or Spring cleaning chores. So I stopped that. I’ve tried to keep a list in my head but that doesn’t work because my memory is like a sieve. Then I thought about lists of wants and lists of needs. That seems to work, so each morning at breakfast I make a list of what I NEED to do, like pay the credit card or set out the traps for the mice/voles who are eating my bean plants, etc. The wants come all by themselves and I rarely feel dissatisfied at the end of the day.
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I have struggled with lists for years. I would have a list for each day and if I didn’t finish the stuff on the list I would feel dissatisfied. I sometimes made lists in categories, like List of Things to do this summer, or Boat List or Spring cleaning chores. So I stopped that. I’ve tried to keep a list in my head but that doesn’t work because my memory is like a sieve. Then I thought about lists of wants and lists of needs. That seems to work, so each morning at breakfast I make a list of what I NEED to do, like pay the credit card or set out the traps for the mice/voles who are eating my bean plants, etc. The wants come all by themselves and I rarely feel dissatisfied at the end of the day.
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I just love the Flickers, so colourful in flight. I’ve never been lucky enough to see a nest though. Thanks for sharing that photo.
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I just love the Flickers, so colourful in flight. I’ve never been lucky enough to see a nest though. Thanks for sharing that photo.
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