I have color-coded post-it
notes up in my room with various things to-do in my life. Purples are school
related, blues are for Peace Corps (light for current and dark for post), and
yellows for life. The lists grow
faster then they shrink. Some are starting to curl upwards and I wonder if they
will stay sticky. It’s 5 o’clock
and I’m just getting home even though I taught the morning shift. I can only
cross one thing off my list. . . . so what was I doing with my time?
In Toby Keith’s song “My
List” he confesses to the many things that try to fill his days. “Under an old
brass paper weight, is my list of things to do today. Go to the bank and the
hardware store,” but knows that there are other things that are more important.
For example “Go for a walk, say a pray, take a deep breath of mountain air, put
on my glove, play some catch.” In the end he confesses that it “wouldn’t change
the course of fate, if cutting grass just had to wait. I’ve got more important
things. Like pushing my kid on a backyard swing. Won’t break my back for a
million bucks I can’t take to my grave. So why put off for tomorrow what could
get done today? ….just start living that’s the next thing on my list.”
I didn’t do my to-do list
today because I was too busy living life. My hands got covered in ink while
helping students make posters to send to American students instead of recording
attendance on my clipboard. I made jokes while I licked 77 stamps for a package
with a friend as her one-year-old played with the hem of my flowing skirt. I
twirled kids while having to wait for cars and camels to pass. I went to a
friend’s just to show her pictures of my family, and ended up having tea and
making plans for going to her niece’s birthday party tomorrow. I went to buy
bread from an amazing 10th grade female student, and ended up
sitting on the edge of her small bed in the bread house going over various
exercises from her English book. And I’m writing this blog instead of grading
or recording or doing anything else on the various to-do lists posted.
And that’s okay.
Yes, I will need to record
and send students’ letters (and inevitably lick more stamps), get water, wash
dishes, sweep, clean my room, and make dinner eventually. But instead of
prioritizing those to an extreme, I decide to help a student for an hour. I
move things around so that I keep my daylight hours focused on people and truly
living this life. I make so many plans with so many people I have to write them
down, but love that my life can be focused on friends here!
I remember the first day
of classes at college--being completely overwhelmed by the syllabi. How was
everything going to do get done for all the courses? Through hard work, it was
all able to be completed, but two years after graduation, it’s not the
paperwork that was most important, but the friends made and lessons learned. It
was the part of living life beyond what is assigned or expected.
This weekend I have plans
to eat fish, get internet, go to a birthday party (maybe overnight), watch and
photograph teacher soccer game, and find paint to finish mural. Somewhere in
there I should do laundry (by hand), go to market, get letters sent off and
plan next week’s lessons with more details. Life. Crazy, hectic, fun, and as
meaningful as one’s focus is.
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