“Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” - Mary Oliver, Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches

I had several reasons to not start this article this morning. Shopping and planning for the holidays. Figuring out how I’m going to get every single task that others have put on my list done this week so they can enjoy their holidays. Planning for 2020. Going to the club to work out. And the list goes on and on.

When we take inventory of what’s been put on “the list” on purpose and by accident, by me or by others, we often come up short on the meaningful work that we define and plan. ” I call this “checklist” living and I’ve mastered it.